The inevitable post defiance fic
by Clement Rage
Summary: The title. Not as bad as it sounds.
1. Chapter 1

_Ummm...This is the inevitable post defiance fic. It's kind of a sequel to family matters. It, in my opinion, is long, dull, and repetitive, with a few gems buried under all the crap. If I get bored, randomness may ensue_

_I own nothing._

**The inevitable post defiance fic**

The elder god brooded beneath nosgoth. It had many names, but that was the label Moebius had used, and was now how it referred to itself. It was distinctly irritated at the moment. Moebius was dead and beyond revival, and, not least, now purified and unlikely to blindly obey. Kain had escaped his grasp, and Raziel had entered the reaver despite all his efforts. The time stream would prevent him changing his actions, so now his only hopes were beyond the era where he'd raised Raziel, where three strong cards were his to play. He could wait. Being the hub of the Wheel of fate meant a wide range of possibilities.

A sluagh named Ragl wandered over to the remains of Hunter's den, despite his every sense telling him to flee. He had been unfortunate enough to have devoured a ridiculously stupid soul lately, which was also curious, and an unfortunate tendency to assume the traits of their food meant that Ragl was wandering over to Hunter's den. His inner self was expecting his life expectancy to be all of two seconds.

What had attracted him had been the shifting of debris in hunter's pit. It had imprisoned a renegade servant, which had escaped through the vessel of another servant who'd been devoured by the first servant? That was almost beyond the capabilities of Ragl's recent sustenance to understand, and Ragl's core raged at his shell, trying madly to get it to flee. A few days afterwards, the prison had collapsed, and now some debris was moving, painfully slowly. A few hours later, a shard of stone fell aside as Hunter spoke.

"I applaud your efforts, Raziel, but you cannot escape without a bearer. It was most unwise of you to refrain from being absorbed. Even now your energy is failing"

A strange, flickering coil materialized in the spectral realm. A clarity that Ragl instantly knew would not last fell over the apparition. It projected "You think me so foolish? I imparted to Kain the fragments of his soul. It was unnecessary to sacrifice mine also and I have no wish to end. Invisibility is useful, and now I am open for the retrieval due to telekinetic bolts."

"Indeed? Who will retrieve you in the spectral plane? You have merely condemned yourself to an eternity of immobility. Kain will be a problem in future, but your rebellion is over."

The coil tried to respond, but lapsed into "Kill kain kill wheel of fate kill kain kill wheel kill kain kill Melchiah kill zephon kill Dumah kill Rahab Kill Turel

Killmoebiuskillkainkillwheelkillkaiwheekikainwheel

Kill all! Kill and Devour all!"

Then it screamed, so profoundly it knocked Ragl flat. Amused, hunter said "If you manage to escape, please do. That would nourish me until the end of existence."

Ragl, who was beginning to think his most recent meal had been a cat, inched closer. Hunter's awareness shifted, and detected him.

"Ah...An inspired choice of bearer, Raziel. Perhaps you may irritate me yet. Servants? Attend.

Archons materialized. Ragl raced for the coil, hoping it could help him defend himself. No sluagh could escape an archon once it knew his soul resonance. He plucked the coil from the ground-and it snaked up his arm and tried to devour him. Ragl fought back with his own soul devouring skills, and the coil was forced to withdraw or be consumed. But it remained clamped to his arm, and Ragl launched a counterattack, absorbing the buried knowledge until he found a useful trait. Force projectiles kept the archons back, and Ragl was able to flee. The building he was in was large and ornate but he eventually found his way out. And accidentally ran over a cliff in his rush. He caught a ledge halfway down and his arm snapped off, but the impact slowed him enough that he landed on another ledge twenty feet further down. Devouring a passing soul, he regrew his arm, and, as the flying archons approached, prepared to jump over the edge of the ledge. But the coil attached to his armnot the one that had snapped would not allow him to move, and Ragl noticed another soul materializing, newly dead, beside him. He decided he couldn't escape the archons in this plane, and broke the primary rule in sluagh society. He reached out to the soul, but instead of devouring it, displaced it, and inhabited its former vessel, using his soul energy to repair it. There was a pause, a shifting sensation-and Ragl screamed. He was blind.

Sluagh see by measuring the soul energy around them. In the spectral realm, there is always soul residue, but in the material realm, there is only soul residue where there is life. So sluagh would be able to see if they were standing on grass, but Ragl had landed on bare rock. If there's any major holes, pm me.

Then, sensing life, He looked up to see a cloud of bats converging on him, attracted by the scream. They stood on something, probably the ledge, and formed a being with so much soul energy it hurt his eyes. Nowhere near as much as Hunter, but still a creature to be wary of. By the time he was finished thinking he had been flung against the rock face and had a sword to his throat to his surprise, he found he could see the sword, because it was imbued with a soul of some sort, similar to the one in his coil. The creature said something. Ragl didn't understand, so he ran the sentence through the vessel's thought processes, which came up with "That is the wraith blade. How did you come by it?"

Ragl searched his vessel's brain, unused to having a physical form. With difficulty, he found the functions that governed the vocal chords and responded "sdkm, trglvtjl kn-iujp'm."

"A beast. Evidently trans-planar. Who removed the blade from the tentacles?"

Ragl tried again. "Irlan Masse Crum."

"Hmmm...It speaks Archaic Meridian. But... 'random nonsense spoken'?"

Unsure if Projection would be of use in this plane, Ragl had not tried. Abilities could have unexpected effects in planes they weren't designed for. But the creature was obviously preparing to cut him down, so...

Who are you? 

"Kain."

I know the name. This coil clamped to my arm desperately wants to destroy you.

"Indeed? Strange...he was absorbed due to his own choice."

He? The soul in the blade was known to you?

"Yes. He tried to destroy me several times, then didn't when he had the chance, then ripped out my heart, then had himself absorbed so I could hurt his...benefactor."

His benefactor? You speak of Hunter?

"I do not know that name."

Ragl thought. What had the coil called it?

Wheel...of Fate?

Again, he was flung against the rock face. "What do you know of that entity?"

He destroys sluagh, for we deny him sustenance. That is all. We can irritate his servants, but he is invulnerable. He was hunting me, because I robbed him of this coil, and I escaped by animating this vessel. 

"So...the wraith blade binds itself to a passer by to escape the wheel of fate. Yet the creature has little power, and will be an unlikely ally. How do I progress from here?"

It was at this point that Hunter, having courteously waited until they had finished their conversation, cut in.

"He cannot escape the wheel lightly. You cannot even do that. Be wary of free will, kain. Paradoxes form all too easily."

A half dozen archons materialized. Kain dissolved into bats, some of them carrying Ragl with surprising ease. The archons capable of flight followed.

_Congrats for reading my first stab at post-defiance. Sorry about resurrecting raz, that was a sadly necessary beginning to the fic. It's a shame to nullify his sacrifice, but that's how it turned out. Violence lovers, fear not. This reverts to 'kain wanders nosgoth killing all in his path' mode soon._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Flying, Ragl closed his eyes. And plumbed into the depths of the wraith blade. Kain, for all his skillful maneuvers, could not escape the chasing archons. So Ragl absorbed the blade's knowledge until he found a useful skill. He waited until Kain used unbelievable dexterity to guide the fragments of him through a real group of bats, then turned himself invisiblethankfully, bats navigate through ultrasound, so none hit him. To his delight, Ragl found the skill also masked your soul residue, so now the archons were very confused. The downside was, Kain almost dropped him out of surprise. The three archons that followed Ragl gleefully shot down with projectiles.

_No conduits in midair. They won't find me._

As they were flying over the Sarafan stronghold, an incredibly accurate, freakishly lucky shot from a Sarafan archer who knew all too well what bats flying over were likely to be, actually brought down three of the Kain-bats. Knowing his danger, Kain dropped Ragl and reformed, before the corpses could be lost forever. Ragl plummeted. He landed on a massive open air Moebius statue, and was forced to abandon his physical form. However, the wraith blade seized its chance to unbind itself from him, and remained, embedded in the statue.

Shortly afterward, Kain floated down. He landed beside the blade and paused, looking first at the physical blade, then the wraith. Eventually, he shook his head and flew away. He had grown slightly more cautious in recent years. Slightly.

_To those who don't think a wraith blade can be embedded in a statue, in my opinion, if it can impale someone, it is solid. It also can open doors in material, so..._

_Please review._


	3. Elena

Chapter 3

Kain alighted in front of a certain cottage he knew and kicked down the door.

"Elena?"

"Here, Kain. How does vampirism suit you?"

"It could be worse. How do you know of that?"

Elena came into view as he ascended the stairs to the roof.

"I may be untutored, but I'm not stupid. You are assassinated, and shortly afterward the people widely suspected of your murder are found, _drained of blood,_ not far from your tomb. A vampire is rumoured to be slaying the circle that fits your description. Stories abound that a new vampire slew Moebius even after Vorador fell to him. It was not difficult."

She turned and looked him over. "You've matured. If I didn't know the voice, I'd think I was facing a vampire that was three, four thousand years old." Her eyes narrowed. " I was in William's fortress the day he was murdered, and I remember the description the guards gave. You have been time streaming?"

Kain laughed. He knew she was intelligent, but...this much? Or was it superstition that, for once, was correct. He let her speak on.

"Why didn't you come to me before you went on a mad vengeance quest?"

"The last time you gave me advice, I was murdered. I was properly mistrustful. You knew what would happen to me in Ziegsturl, correct?"

"Yes. Are you here to kill me?"

"Sadly, no. I have another use for you."

"Which is?"

"I need you to see this-"drew the soul reaver "-gets to William the Just a few days before I kill him."

"You trust me?"

"No. But I know you'll believe me when I say that if you don't a fatal paradox could bring about the destruction of nosgoth."

"Ah, so you _have_ been time streaming. But why should I believe you? And why should you think I could? Moebius was the time-streamer."

"True, but he, being dead, is unlikely to help. You know where the chronoplast is, but I spent a lot of time there in this era, and I would prefer not to meet myself."

"Meet yourself? Ah. Even so, you wouldn't send a defenseless old woman into a place where a certain vampire is full of righteous rage at me."

"Defenseless? Hardly. I know you're a mage, and I think you told me once you tutored the circle. I now believe that's nonsense, yet no one who wasn't familiar with them would have the gall to make the boast."

"No boast, child. Merely exaggeration. Mortanius foresaw Ariel's life-thread ending, and urged her to name someone to train her successor. I was her maid at the time, and had some talent. She taught me some of her skills, and Nupraptor, who wanted Ariel get it done as quickly as possible so she could spend time with him before she diedselfish bastard telepathically linked us to speed up the process, so I accidentally obtained some of his talents as a result. That's all."

"You happened to be her maid? Hmm...suspicious."

Elena looked openly surprised. "The balance guardian? You?"

"No need to sound so disgusted. You didn't know? Then why send me to Ziegsturl?"

Kain's voice began to take on a dangerous edge.

"Mortanius told me to. Now...I can see you're getting angry, and you've every right, but if I'm going to get your sword placed I'd better be going. Goodbye, Kain. If you have lied to me, I'll raise what's left of Moebius' mob against you."

She vanished.

_That's harsh. _

_Yep, it's going nowhere, but I felt I had to put in this chapter. Reviews/flames welcome. Especially flames. If no one reads this I can do something else._


	4. Arming for War

_Another chapter. Violence soon, I promise._

Chapter 4

Kain landed. He approached the wraith blade. Cautiously._ It will most likely instantly devour my soul, but I can't just leave it here. Unless that's the Wheel's new fate. A less rebellious agent, bearing it, could be quite troublesome._

He was just about to reach for it when something caught his eye from among the graffiti that adorned every sacred monument. He was, he realized, looking for any distraction from the blade, and his attention had been caught by a piece of a spearpoint jammed in a crevice. Just as he was about to turn away in disgust, a message caught his eye. It read "Raziel was here, fondling Janossomewhat unenthusiastically, to be fair-he's after Vorador" Weathered as it was, Kain could just recognize Turel's precise script. It seemed unlife hadn't altered Turel's sense of humour.

_How did he get up here? For a human, that's a lot of effort just to write a message._ Distinctly amused, Kain began searching for other scripts he knew. Melchiah's contribution was

I was here, but now I'm not,

I'm around the corner getting shot

I left this here t prove a point

Budget cuts-unarmoured joints

Zephon also had a piece, but it was partially obscured by a man named Edwin boasting over his conquests in brothels. Someone else had written beneath "Remind me to tell your wife." Under which Edwin had written "My Lord, please!"

_My Lord?_

Only eight people had the title Lord in the Sarafan order. He didn't know the script, so that left Moebius and Malek. He began searching for that script, and found it under a ledger with "Brave people sign here." There was about fifty names, and then the message "Let me add a real element of bravery to this exercise: The next person to touch my statue is in serious trouble. This will be carried out." Moebius, then. Strange, he'd never known the time streamer to show an amicable side. Of course, it would not do the leader of a massive genocidal war against vampires to be amiable to the catalyst of that war.

That unprofitable, but certainly entertaining interlude did not collect the wraith blade. He picked it up. As expected, it snaked up his arm and tried to devour his soul. Kain had his defences in place and momentarily drove it off. But it remained bound to him, and could project messages.

_Hello, Kain._

The sluagh told me you were insane.

_It was right. Hitting the statue seems to have temporarily restored me._

Kain looked at the statue speculatively.

Moebius statues seem to have curative qualities. Magnus, Martin, and now a blade that is insubstantial. It resembles a plot device in a hastily written opera. 

_Martin?_

After your execution. 

_I see. There's something you need to know, I'm certain of it, but that sluagh took so much of me I cannot remember-It concerned the ancient war. I remember this much- the ancients weren't as faultless as their murals depict._

Tantalizing hints,but missing the vital detail. It seems that every message I've ever received was in that vein. We should depart, its almost dawn. The glowing is somewhat conspicuous, could you mute it?

_Kain fears the Sarafan?_ But the blade vanished. Kain could feel it lurking in his arm. He teleported just before a voice shouted "Whose up there?"

Eric the weaponsmith excelled at his profession. Every weapon became a heirloom, and, with care, could last thousands of years untarnished. At least, that was his sales pitch. It had yet to be contested. He'd seen the reaver once. He considered it sloppy crafting. It was much too heavy, the ornamentation detracted from the cutting edge, and it was brittle. He could see it had already snapped once, and another blow delivered the wrong way could shatter it completely. His weapons were highly sought after, so he hired a team of expert guards, equipped by him. When he came down one morning and discovered that two spears, several throwing knives, a few swords, and a beautifully balanced battleaxe he'd spent three months crafting had disappeared, leaving him with a closed portcullis, a broken window, and a guard thrown through a three inch wall, he was quite perturbed. Heading to the window, he glanced out. No trail. Any creature carrying that much weaponry would be heavy enough to sink thigh high in the soft ground. Strange...

"Someone's gearing themselves up for war."

If he strained his hearing, he thought for one instant he could hear a quiet laugh.

_Hmmm...this one is a bit abrupt. Anyone who thinks the Sarafan were too zealous for graffiti should know that the hieroglyphic equivalent of I woz ere has been found on the pyramids, written by the workers. Melchiah's was an adapted version of something I saw in a public bathroom recently._


	5. The castle on the abyss

_I don't like the image of Kain in a cocoon, but that seems to be how vampires pupate, so...Enjoy. There's some violence in this one. The Elder resurfaces. The intropicture this... is so cheesy, but I was getting sick of the phrase 'Kain teleported'. _

**The castle on the Abyss**

Picture this...

A cave, devoid even of bats. The entrance is sealed by thousands of tonnes of fallen rock. No one has been here in centuries.

Picture this...

The debris has not shifted, but now a presence exists in the cave. Invisible, for it is dark. Isolated, for it is unique. Powerful, for it is angry. Primal, for it is ancient.

Kain. Enough said.

_What are you doing?_

Pupating. I need to get to the era after the fall of my empire.

_You can't! My sanity won't hold that long. It was the isolation that lost it at the first. As soon as you awake, I will attempt to devour you, perhaps before. _

I am sorry, Raziel. I cannot use the chronoplast, because I will be there. The results of a meeting could be catastrophic. It was enough of a risk sending Elena.

_There are other chronoplasts!_

They are either de-activated or short range.

_Then go the longest way! We can escape notice._

I cannot. The temptation to interfere would be too great. You understand the peril of being expelled from the time stream. Do you remember how to enter dormancy? That could stave off the loss of your mind.

Raziel suddenly sounded amused.

_In exquisite detail. It allowed me to be executed, you recall? However, how does a blade weave a cocoon?_

The cocoon is just for security. Entering dormancy is in the state of mind.

Now the blade sounded resigned.

_Very well. I have no doubt you will regret this when I devour you._

Perhaps, but even then I will understand my logic.

Acting quickly and efficiently, Kain spun himself a cocoon before the air in the sealed cave ran out. The wraith blade drew back into his arm. He slid into the dreamless, deep coma of vampiric evolution.

_Centuries pass..._

Kain came into partial wakefulness just as Dumah flared in his senses. Gradually, a few of his brain cells ran a quick maintenance check. Everything was unharmed, but locked in dormancy. More of his brain fired into sluggish life, flexing stiff muscles. It was forty years before he was fully limber. At that stage, his mostly restored brain was cursing himself over not foreseeing this. He waited another three days before deciding he would be limber enough to venture out. So he stood up, his cocoon partly rotted away. He hadn't the quality of Zephonim silk, nor was his cocoons as durable. Likewise, his clothes had long since rotted. He had been prepared for that, at least.

Knowing there was a possibility of him returning to this era, Kain had spent centuries building the local deity of a tribe of feral humans above the cave. He had fabricated a story of a dead king entombed in the cave, going so far as to give his precise clothing measurements kain's own. Every week, the dead king required a blood sacrifice, some of what Vorador would doubtless refer to as 'cattle food', a suit of clothes, basic travel equipment, a haversack, etc, etc. In return, any vampires daring to attack the village were mysteriously found dismembered in the village square several days later. Kain was quite proud of this arrangement. It had taken long years of careful planning. Even the crevice he'd knocked in the cave roof had taken time. He packed up their most recent offering and dressed, being careful to allow for his weapons. They were still as usable as the day they'd been forged. He made a mental note to, when this was over, travel back in time and give the blacksmith a generous early payment.

Realizing the landscape could have changed since he'd been awakening, he sought for the one landmark that was sure to exist. But there was something occupying all the free space around them, so he had to move further out. Finally finding a vacant space, he cautiously teleported. A surprised Dumahim stared at him in shock.

At least, they smelled like Dumahim. But this one had four arms, two clawed and two human arms. His armour was well maintained, and he had the stance of a born fighter. Kain was standing just outside the main doors to the Sanctuary of the Clans. The Dumahim splayed his claws and crouched.

"Kain, I don't know why you're here after you abandoned us for so long, but you rarely herald good news, and apparently the Razelim got a squad past the Abyss. It's heading right this way, so I don't have time for pleasantries. Either kill me or go away."

_After you abandoned us for so long. _That stung, and stung hard. This Dumahim had gall, and it also remembered him. The Razelim had been destroyed, so how could they be on their way? Kain reached for his weapons, then thought better of it. He telekinetically lifted the Dumahim into the air, hoping to teach it respect. A massive creature swooped from nowhere. Kain dropped the Dumahim. Just before the creature could swallow it, the Dumahim clambered onto the creature's snout. It somehow steered the creature low over the Sanctuary, directly at the pillars. At the last second, the Dumahim leapt off onto the building. The creature dissolved just before it hit the pillars. Kain grinned. It was heartening to see that the pillars had power yet. The Dumahim landed right beside Kain, then seized a spear off a bracket and flung it full force towards the Abyss, catching a creature with large bulbous eyes just as it rounded the corner. Its furious thrashing apparently caught some other creatures as well, judging from the screams. Several Dumahim on a barricade made of stone debris ran around the corner. The screams stopped. Two came running over. The Dumahim _winked_ at Kain, and then stepped to meet them.

" Kain is clever, eh? He got me high enough to take out the captain, then aided me telekinetically with the throw that took out the sarge, perfectly calculated so the thrashing would take out the rest." Kain, who had done no such thing, kept his face impassive. The two fledglings gushed praise. Kain could see straight away how ragged they were, practically gaunt. Over their heads, the adult mouthed 'You are legendary. Don't disappoint.' Kain could see the wariness in his features. That was to be expected. He had never been a very benevolent ruler.

The Dumahim were, the adult explained, cut off from everywhere by the abyss. The silenced cathedral had a colony of Dumahim, but it was being laid siege to by wraiths, and no one could enter. The Razelim constantly pounded the little colony, and would have wiped it out long since if it weren't for a strange building on the abyss that obstructed their assaults. Most of the clan could fly, but they were easy targets in the air. The central chamber in the sanctuary was sealed off, so the Dumahim could only take refuge in the outer chambers. A few hours later, having given them his emergency blood sacrifice congealed, but better than nothing he set out for the abyss, on a 'noble quest', as the Adult Dumahim put it barely preventing himself from sniggering.

The edifice built on it was almost disappointing to look at. It was pockmarked and weatherworn, with shards of stone littering the steps up to the entrance. The door was in good repair, though, and Kain automatically tensed when he opened it.

"Ah, Kain," said the wheel of fate, "We meet again." The voice no longer echoed from everywhere, but was coming from a large pedestal with a wheel carved into it in the centre of the entrance hall. Five other, smaller pedestals were also in the room. They moved by firing telekinetic projectiles in the direction opposite where they wished to go. The room had two stairwells at the end, each leading to the same balcony, which had a door in the centre. There was also an arch between the two stairwells on the ground floor, protected by some sort of shield.

The large pedestal fired a projectile at Kain, moving itself backwards in the process.

"You're no better than your minions, it seems. Tell me, did you choose stone pawns because living pawns were unable to listen to you?"

"You should be honoured, Kain. I took a vessel merely to greet such an insignificant soul as you. I am giving you the chance to win one paltry victory before I destroy you. But I will not let you win even that easily."

The pedestal fired another projectile, propelling itself through the arch. Kain followed, the shield shattering as he struck it, passed through-

And was greeted by the most profound agony he'd ever experienced. He screamed, and abyss water poured down his throat, lacerating him. But some unnatural instinct had made him wrap his arms around the post of the warp gate, and he slowly and painfully pulled himself back through, tumbling as he hit the ground and leaping away as the warp gate exploded, destroying three pedestals near it. Vomiting, Kain shot a look laced with pure venom at the carved pedestal, which was resting on the balcony. It said "Even I can scarcely believe that worked. You have grown careless."

"_I can scarcely believe that worked!_ Admitting a lack of omniscience, are we?"

"I am the Hub of the Wheel, the Engine of Life!" The pedestal returned angrily.

"Ah, but perhaps your metaphor is more apt than you know. A Hub has no control over the direction of a wheel, an engine needs an operator. You admit your lack of control in your very mantra."

"I am beginning to wonder if you deserve a victory. We shall see within. I am sure I shall keep you amused until then." The pedestal vanished. Thirty small pedestals burst out the door on the balcony.

A crowded fifteen seconds passed.

Kain stepped back as a projectile found the range. Only seven pedestals were still standing, and three were mortally wounded. Projectiles found three more, and the one remaining was scarred. Deciding to attempt a body slam, the sole surviving pedestal soured out over the railing, smashing on the ground well short of Kain. He paused on the point of launching his first telekinetic projectile and ascended the stairs.

_Hmm...If they do this to themselves, how long would it have taken if I'd attacked?_

He opened the door warily, and was totally unsurprised when the ground dropped from beneath his feet. The walls had very steeply sloping sides, which ended at the heart of the abyss. Kain dug in his claws in the side walls. Three wheeled pedestals charged him. The wheels were spiked, allowing them to get a grip in the soft stone. The first missed him altogether, whirring past and teetering invitingly at the brink of the abyss. Kain didn't take the bait. Instead, he grabbed the second as it closed and flung it at the first, sending them both over the side. He knocked off pedestal number three with telekinesis.

Opening one of the doors off the room, Kain beheld a lift. He paused, then dissolved in bats, flying up the shaft. In passing, one of the bats pulled the lever. The lift dropped like a stone. There was a splash. At the top of the lift shaft, Kain kicked open a door in front of him and leapt through before a glyph shield closed over it. He seemed to have a talent for detecting the things.

"Catching on, are we? It seems you do learn. The lift was designed to be an annoyance. It failed even to do that. Now, I give you a chance to face your God. Be thankful."

The pedestal was resting in a small depression in the centre of the room, presumably to allow it to fire projectiles and stay in the same place. The room was octagonal, with rafters extending from each wall. They intersected in the centre of the room, directly above the pedestal. There was a skylight above the intersection, sealed off by a glyph shield. A spiral staircase wound around the walls, heading to the rafters. The rafters and the floor were lined with small pedestals, hundreds of them.

"Unwilling to face me alone? The shame of needing assistance to grant a victory to 'an insignificant little soul.'"

"Do not try me, Kain. You know not of the consequences." A glyph shield sprang up around the pedestal. The pedestal grunts blinked into life. A wave of projectiles whirred towards Kain, sending the pedestals flying. A larger bolt, courtesy of the Wheel, destroyed a half dozen grunts.

It was the strangest fight he'd ever been in, not counting Elzevir's teddy bear. The glyph shield protected the central pedestal from all harm except telekinetic projectiles, but Kain was too busy dodging wave after wave of projectiles to launch one, and the pedestals wouldn't fire when he stood beside their captain. He could do this for days, and no impression would have been made on their endless ranks. After several minutes he found the gleanings of a plan surfacing in his mind. Gradually, he made his way to the stairs, realizing the pedestals could not climb. He kept moving, and by the time he reached the rafters not one pedestal remained standing on them, each having launched at least one projectile at him, and hence fell off. He strode over to the intersection and caught his breath. He could feel the projectiles hitting the wood from beneath. That was fine. He was shielded by the rafters, let them drive themselves into the ground. The intersection was bare- except for the corpse of a dead hylden engineer. Turning him over, Kain found a glyph battery set into the wood of the rafters that the hylden had been clawing at. Its purpose seemed obvious. To destroy the room by bringing down the rafters. Perhaps also undoing the glyph shield above, leaving an escape route. Hmm...Did the pedestals know of this?

"Enjoying yourself up there, Kain?"

"Well enough. These beams are oak; you can spend eternity firing at me and still waste your time. I can teleport away at any time, leaving your pedestals hammering themselves into the ground."

"Perhaps. But do you think the pedestals are of value to me? I can lose thousands more than the ones in this room and there will be thousands more. I could conquer Nosgoth with a quarter of the pedestals in this building if it weren't for their inability to climb stairs."

"Yes? You evidently do not excel at craftsmanship, then."

"The hylden built this place. They found an endlessly renewable, easily obtainable source of power in the abyss. So they built an easily maintained defensive army. But I have power in this lake. It was easy to influence the pedestals. The hylden fled."

"That explains the glyph shields. But while you've been explaining, more of your pedestals have destroyed themselves. I very much doubt you can face me in open combat."

Kain leaned out over the beam and fired a telekinetic projectile downwards. The pedestal screeched with rage.

"This room has no more value to me than the pedestals! You tread on perilous ground."

"Even your lightning bolts could not penetrate these beams."

"Do you think I can be goaded that easily? Foolish, Kain. I know exactly what you are doing. And yet, perhaps I should grant you a victory after all. Very well, Kain. I shall play your game. But you would do well to remember, I will be less charitable when me meet again."

The pedestal fired the bolt. Kain leapt. The violence of the explosion shocked even Kain. One of the rafters was driven directly through the wall. For a sickening moment the Ward gate held, but it dissolved an instant before Kain struck it. He crashed through the window-

-through the floor of an identical room-

-which collapsed down on the room below. There was a second explosion as the glyph battery at the door took damage, then a third as the battery powering the pedestal's private shield was hit by debris. Lazily floating down, Kain glided through where one of the walls had been into another similar room. This one had a handful of surviving pedestals, which Kain quickly dispatched. Moving on, he found another lift beside another identical room, flew up to the top of the shaft, reformed, and dived through the door. He was instantly hit by several hundred projectiles and a lightning bolt, and barely avoided being flung into the glyph shield that had formed across the entrance. The central pedestal was less inclined to talk this time, saying only "I trust we can dispense with the formalities this time?" in the middle of launching another bolt. Kain, hemmed in by the arch he'd entered by, barely dodged, but was rewarded by the bolt ricocheting off the glyph shield and destroying several pedestals, allowing him room to get out of the arch. After that, there was much the same pattern as before, and soon Kain was standing on the intersection of the rafters.

"Well done. You got into a position likely to allow you to escape. But I have no intention of obliging you a second time, so how do you intend to attack me this time?"

Kain risked a glance down. The pedestal was more battered than it had been originally, and the blue glow was muted.

"It doesn't matter." He charged a telekinetic projectile, aiming for the glyph battery. He would be hurt by this explosion, but he would live. He fired, then leapt in the fraction of a second he had before the projectile hit the battery. There was certainly searing pain, but that meant he'd survived. Whether the pedestal had was another matter. Somehow, the walls of the room had remained intact after this blast, and Kain landed lightly on the debris, heading for the one door remaining accessible after the blast. As he reached the threshold, he turned. The pedestal had materialized in the centre of the room. The blue glow flickered now. Disdainfully, Kain strode through the door, shutting it behind him. A fireball reduced it to burning matchsticks shortly after. Kain turned. Two flaming tentacles smashed through the wall, preceding the pedestal, which stood on six more. As much debris as Kain could possibly telekinetically throw flew at it. The flaming tentacles did a good job of blocking, but some got through. The pedestal spun over backwards and hit the ground, conjuring a domed flaming shield around itself. Lazily, Kain began tossing pieces of debris at the shield. It must have been several hours after when he heard the voices and strolled to a shadowy corner. About a hundred Razelim burst into the room, and pedestal grunts began pouring out of crevices and charging them. The Razelim cut through the pedestals like a knife through warm butter, but more poured in. Nevertheless, the Razelim drove the pedestals out of the room, leaving a half dozen or so behind as they pushed on. One of the remaining pedestals tried to move, hit the flaming shield, and exploded. But the abyss water at its core ate through the shield. Seeing this, a couple of Razelim stragglers hurled the remaining pedestals at the shield, with the desired results. One of them poked the shield, and was instantly consumed by flames. The others walked after the rest of the army, cursing. Kain stepped out of his hiding place.

A fireball flew at him, which he dodged. The shield dissolved and the pedestal said "What irks me is, I am in fact their benefactor. Yet they hate me." But Kain had no intention of letting the thing escape, and was no longer in a mood to talk. He was already moving. The pedestal shattered on his second strike. It was easy to get out of the building after that. The Razelim had driven back the pedestals.

_Probably the worst chapter so far. The problem is my descriptive skills. This chapter seems a bit ominous, doesn't it? The Elder seems almost amused that Kain destroys his vessel._


	6. The Razelim

_Meandering again! Yay! Bt the way, to people wondering where Raziel was in the last chapter, he's still dormant._

**The Razelim**

Between his brief immersion in the abyss and his burns from the explosion, Kain's blood reserves were beginning to get alarmingly low. Happily, two Razelim stragglers attacked him from behind as stepped onto Razelim soil. Even after draining them dry, very little blood went to his reserves. Beginning to get slightly anxious, he increased his pace, hoping to have found more sustenance before the bulk of the Razelim clan returned from their assault on the abyss fortress.

He never heard the soft wingbeats behind him, and certainly didn't hear the soft footfalls. But that didn't mean he didn't detect his hunters, and whirled instantly once he caught their scent, pulling out his axe in the same movement. The three Razelim grinned. The largest one took the form of a massive winged lizard, with glinting red eyes and thick scaly armour, while the other two assumed large, lithe, wolfish forms and moved like lightning. The smaller two flanked him, while the largest moved in from the front. It reared its serpentine neck and spat sheets of flame at him. Dodging, Kain fended off an attack from one of the smaller ones, which adroitly leapt out of reach before he could counter. This continued for some time, unchanging except the condition of the dragon getting progressively worse, from the eye punctured by a throwing knife to the severed tongue and deep cut on the side of its neck. Ducking a scything claw, Kain delivered a downswipe directly between its eyes, but even that barely penetrated the armour. About to deliver another blow, something caught the corner of his eye, and he turned and snagged the crossbow bolt out of the air, ducking the larger ballista bolt, which the dragon, belying its size, sidestepped quickly. It reared its neck-

-and its head exploded. Kneeling, Kain examined the pools of flame littering the corpse

"Naphtha." You had to credit the humans. Weak, foolish, and slow, but no one could deny that they _were _resourceful. A second ballista bolt thudded into the corpse. Kain looked up, and saw...a cart? Yes, a cart, but armoured, and with no visible horse. Another barrel of naphtha emerged from a tube in the front. Kain dodged, and lit a torch from the burning pools, hurling it into the hole. A lone human emerged from a hatch at the top just before the explosion, and was blasted clear. Checking that the wolf Razelim were nowhere to be seen, Kain picked up the human by the throat. Only pure disdain and arrogance were in those eyes. That and the bright stare of the truly mad.

"How does that device work?"

"It talks! What are you, creature? You do not look like any vampire I've ever seen, and neither are you a hylden. Is it a wraith? It is not blue. I love puzzles."

"Answer me." Not an exclamation. A calm statement, tinged with slight amusement.

"Why would I? What do I need to fear, Kain? You don't have time to torture me, you can't turn me into a vampire without splitting your soul again, and I would be dangerous to carry with you." The madness was gone.

"I could devour your soul."

"And feed the wheel of fate?" The human gave a derisive laugh.

Kain grinned. A human with a spine? Far more important than such a trivial matter as restoring nosgoth. It was a longstanding tradition of Kain's former empire that any of these rare specimens were brought to him. His delighted grin alone could reduce two in three to tears/begging. This human was only slightly discomfited by it. That would change.

"Obviously, you do not know the horrors of impromptu torture." Grabbing a hand in one claw and a wrist in the other, Kain _twisted._ Stopping the bloodflow, Kain exited the courtyard and emerged into a hallway, with a pool of water to his left. Flinging the human in, he took a moment explain the purpose to his prey.

"The Razelim will be back any second. If you get out of there, they will easily track you. For the moment, you are protected from them, but if you should bleed too much and the water dilutes, when you, for example, fall asleep..."

"I'll explain-"

"Too late. I don't really have much interest in it in any case." Kain walked away. Someone applauded. Looking around, Kain located a humanoid vampire leaning against the wall not far off.

"Your diplomacy skills are unmatched, Kain. Do you do that to everyone you meet?"

"Most. Do you know him?"

"He runs the biggest pipeline in golem pedestals in nosgoth. He sold several to this clan, as training exercises for fledglings, and was heading back to his stocks when you met him. The same pedestals, I believe, that are moving towards us just now. He sometimes pretends to be mad to deter vampires from draining him."

"Ha! You're in for it now!" screamed the delirious salesman as the nine wheeled pedestals approached.

"I think not." replied Kain and the other vampire simultaneously. The Razelim, Kain judged by scent, unlimbered a strange ivory handled spear and crouched as the pedestals charged. The first pedestal lost a wheel as the vampire rammed his spear where the axle should have been, which he jumped over, then snatched up the spiked wheel and flung it at the second, where it bit deep, draining the abyss water that powered it. In the narrow hallway, the next pedestal crashed into it, ricocheted off the wall and smashed. The next one was destroyed by Kain flinging the unwheeled pedestal at it. The remaining five crashed into their fellows and the survivors were finished off by the two vampires, who then continued talking.

"Where did you get that spear?"

"You gave it to me."

"I don't recall you."

"You wouldn't. At least not by name."

"I don't know your name, and I don't deliver gifts."

"'Gift' is a generous term. You remember a few months after Raziel was executed, the Razelim rebelled? I'm sure you remember me, even if you don't recognize me."

_Memories rose..._

"Yes, I remember you. You made your wing-bones into spears?"

"Of course. I snuck back the night after the battle. Six spears, two lost or broken over the years. They served me well."

"You have some authority over the Razelim? There is a surprising lack of them here, considering it is their territory. Did you send them away so we could talk?"

"No. I am a renegade, because I didn't flee into the sea. Raziel's corpse led a massive offensive against the hylden recently, and that's where most of the clan are. When the Ward Gates on the abyss went down, no one wanted to miss the glory of wiping out that damned Dumahim colony that _dared" _genuine hatred suffused his voice for a moment "to _defile _our ancient territory by overrunning it."

_Flee into the sea? Raziel's **corpse?** The Hylden?_

"_Raziel?"_

"No, not him. He says he's him, thinks he's him, but he's not. I remember him, and it might be his corpse, but it's not his soul living there."

"Where are the Hyl-"

"You only get one question, Kain, then I'm gone. I'm a renegade, and I still have to raid the larders and get out before the Razelim get back."

Kain thought, and decided to settle for the most practical one. "Why weren't some troops left behind to defend here? Where are they now?"

"I told you, gone to the abyss or on a northern offensive. As for defense, who can get here? Our attacking force is at the abyss. The Chieftains defend the Melchahim side, and the other entrances are sealed. The Razelim are the only aerial force in Nosgoth. There aren't enough teleports in Nosgoth to present a threat. Who would be so foolish as to attack us?"

"Chieftains?"

"One question, Kain. I meant what I said. They're over that way. They are too large to exit their chamber, so they'll be hungry. Be careful."

_Be careful? _Surprised that the Razelim held him so little animosity, and not a little suspicious, Kain started to say something else, but the creature was already gone. Advancing cautiously in the direction indicated, Kain continued until his way was barred by a large door with a clockwork timer next to it. Next to the timer was carved 'Enter at 00:00' It was 00:02 at the moment.

_That seems a little convenient._

Irritated to find that the doors were immovable, Kain had no choice but to wait until the timer counted down. When it did, the doors moved easily. Advancing cautiously, Kain studied the room. It was egg shaped, bloodstained up to halfway, and had a depression with another door in it near the top. A small crack in the otherwise perfect stonework was placed about ten feet above where the bloodstains ended. Kain took another step forward and felt the stone give slightly beneath his hooves. An alarm sounded. The doors behind him abruptly closed and sealed. The entire floor dropped ten feet or so, and the ceiling rose the same distance, revealing sealed doors. One of the doors in the ceiling opened, revealing the strangest creature Kain had ever seen, including the Mass. Start with a sparrowhawk, but add three heads, insect wings and bat wings in addition to the feathered ones. Also, add forty feet in length, sixty in wingspan, and twenty in height. Add several tentacles, legs, hands, antennae, and, for some reason, fins. Vampires are sensitive to power. Galling as it was, Kain had to accept he was outmatched. He began to run. The creature screeched a clarion cry and dived. Kain avoided the stabbing beak easily, but a Blood Gout from an unseen orifice almost took him down. The next time, the beak stabbed, Kain leapt atop the head and drove his spear through it. The head went limp, but a neighbouring head forced him to flee. Hitting the ground, he landed in knee-deep blood. Not his, old blood, clogged with so much anti- congealant it almost made him choke. The blood level was rising fast, and Kain was surprised to find old memories rising quickly to the fore. Vampires generally didn't learn how to swim. If you fell into water, there was no point, you were already dead. But, as a human, Kain had learned, and distant memories kept him on the surface, at least. When the blood reached twenty feet, one of the ground level doors opened, and something with a lot of fins surged towards him, causing a tsunami of blood. Ducking beneath the surface to avoid the worst of the wave, Kain came up behind it, and caught the onrushing creature a strike with his axe. It recoiled and fled, drinking the stagnant blood to heal itself. Just as the blood level reached its peak, the creature came again, this time from beneath. Kain dived aside just before the jaws closed, clinging to the wall just short of the tiny crevice he'd noticed earlier. The flying creature shot at him, but backed off hastily when the underwater creature tried to swallow it. Kain could just get into the crevice before a large body slammed into it, which one he didn't know. A Melchahim and half a dozen humans stared at him from inside the crevice. They looked starved. Kain divested himself of his now blood soaked 'cattle feed', and, now having the respite he needed to concentrate, teleported back to his cave. The Melchahim looked at his companions and said despondently "What, did you expect him to stay?"

_This is chapter was huge fun to write, but is the most implausible so far. Alaric was just put in because I wanted some dialogue. I realize the simultaneous memories might be confusing, sorry. Yes, the Martin was the same one Kain mentioned when talking about the Moebius statues. Yes, the Chieftains were devolved Razelim. I took the name Nicholas from a fic named Dark Omen. Expect sporadic updated from now on, I know exactly where the story is going, but not how to get there. Originally, I had Kain and the Razelim his name is Alaric have simultaneous memories of the event, but they merged when I uploaded it, and I can't save them separated on the site. Summary:The remnants of the Razelim clan attack Kains empire while a Rahabim dignitary named Martin was visiting. Alaric jumps Kain from behind, who turns and cuts his wings off with the Flame sword. The Razelim then punches Kain's kneecaps, and he has to be removed from the battle for a few hours while they heal. Alaric flees through the warp gate in Razelim territory along with the survivors of the clan, to a seaside colony. In a scene similar to the parting of the red sea in the bible, the elder god shelters the Razelim survivors by leading them into the sea. Alaric is terrified and refuses to go, fleeing instead into the nearby jungle._


	7. Pillars

_The last chapter seemed unpopular. 12 hits. Even the previous one got 27. Oh well. _

**The pillars**

Back in his cave, Kain brooded. It irritated him to have to flee, but he could not have stayed in that crevice forever, and he couldn't destroy the creatures with his own abilities. The obvious choice was to play them against each other, but that would be very difficult. The winged creature had kept a careful distance from the submerged one at all times.

But then, why attack? He had no pressing need to go to the Melchahim territories, no pressing need to go anywhere, in fact. Being honest with himself, he had no real plan. He had met the Wheel, but the conversation had neither been conclusive nor enlightening. He could go back to the Abyss and knock the building into rubble, but to what point? The Wheel itself seemed indifferent to that outcome, considering it had destroyed quite a bit of it itself. The only reason he had an urge to go to the Melchahim territory was that he'd been prevented from going there. What sort of way was that for a former ruler to behave?

What he needed was some information, but he had nowhere to go for it. The Dumahim colony knew little about current affairs, concentrating on surviving. Of course, there was one place where he could always find guidance, but the wraith there bore him no small ill-will. The Chronoplast? No, the Wheel would expect that, assuming it wasn't omniscient, in which case any movement at all would be futile and he might as well sit here and brood...

_No! That's the Wheel speaking._

Angrily, Kain smashed the nearest stalagmite to shards; thousands of years work undone in an instant.

_Thousands of years work..._

Wait. He'd just been pupating for over four thousand years. Why hadn't he gained anything? Unless he had, and Kain had been too dimwitted to check. Quickly he ran through his functions, and found an anomaly in his mist form. He pushed it. His right arm misted, and the mist split into three small tentacles, which wound around a stalagmite and snapped it at the base. During which the wraith blade had leapt into existence and impaled the same stalagmite.

_The wraith blade...Raziel?_

It was most strange. Why hadn't he thought about that when he'd woken up? The last thing Raziel had said was a promise that he would devour Kain's soul during dormancy, but when he'd woken, Kain hadn't as much as thought about it. That did not bode well. Either he was going senile, which was unlikely, he was only 8,000, and while certainly no fledgling, was not too old either. Actually, was he 8,000 or younger still? It had been the same 4,000 years twice, so how did tha- He was rambling. Misting his arm into a mace, he destroyed another couple of stalagmites, feeling a flash of pain as a shard cut into the mace. There had been no distortion since he'd arrived in this era, which meant that he was playing into the hands of the Wheel. The other option was that the Wheel was somehow influencing his thoughts, which was not a pleasant thought at all. Maybe that would change now he could summon the wraith blade by dematerializing. The Free Will would certainly be an asset. Tentatively, he sent his senses into the blade. Yes, there was a presence there, but it was not presently conscious. He prodded it mentally, but nothing he could do could revive it.

_Perhaps that is for the best. It would be difficult to act if it was continually trying to absorb me. _

Maybe his thinking was just disoriented with disuse. He ran over his options again. Hunt down the Hylden? To what point? If anything, they were his only allies against the Wheel. Well, allies were a generous term, but they did have a mutual enemy.

After careful deliberation, Kain decided his best choice was the Pillars. Ariel might not be accommodating, but he was now her last hope, so she couldn't very well be openly hostile. He teleported back to his position in front of the Sanctuary doors, then headed for the grille to one side. Misting through, he strode past the Dumahim on the bridge and circled to the doors. There was a shield in front of them, but it shattered when he struck it, and he thrust the doors wide.

The room hadn't changed since he'd ruled there, with even the clan symbols remaining intact. The only unusual factor was the human sitting in his chair at the foot of the balance pillar. The doors slammed shut behind him. Five Dumahim stepped out from behind the throne. They advanced. Kain addressed the human.

"Who are you?"

"I am the balance guardian."

Kain looked at himself theatrically. "I do not appear to be dead."

"That could be arranged."

"I have received many threats. Few have come to pass. But even should I decide to expire, _you _could not become the balance guardian. Someone else would be born"

"I was born the second you departed Nosgoth. Apparently the pillar found your service lacking."

The first Dumahim lunged, and Kain neatly removed its arm. The others backed off hastily.

"You know what happens to vampires who disobey." The human spoke mildly. The vampires were telekinetically torn limb from limb.

"But my soul has not returned to the balance pillar, hence you cannot be born."

"You are partly correct. I was born, but I cannot assume the role until the Primal balance imbued in your soul is restored. It sustains you this instant, for I believe you lost a vital organ while time streaming? But if it is removed, you shall fall, and the pillar can bestow the title to me."

The balance guardian raised a hand, and then let it fall. The Balance pillar began to glow. Kain fell flat as he felt the Primal Balance in his soul draining away. But he did not die, for the Guardian had overlooked one detail. The heart removed was not his only one. When he had awoken first, he had not even felt it beating, but it still sustained him. He got to his feet, slowly. The balance guardian was floating a foot from the ground, a delighted expression on his face as he absorbed Balance. Then he fell, and noticed Kain on his feet.

"No...You cannot still exist! It is impossible!"

"You know much, human, but you are untutored. Do you think Mortanius would be careless, creating his angel of death? Do you believe he would rely on the corrupted pillars?"

Another human materialized beside the pillar of death. "No...Mortanius was skilled, and if he had wanted to live you would not have killed him. I trust I do not have to introduce myself?"

"The Necromancer?"

"Naturally."

Another seven humans teleported into existence beside their pillars. The balance guardian got to his feet, with pure malice on his face.

"Introductions are unnecessary! We must destroy this remnant of the pillars corruption!"

"Why? We have already gained our guardianships. His death is unnecessary."

"He is a vampire! That is enough."

"If we are to believe what we saw in the chronoplast portals, vampires created the pillars, Miathan. He almost freed them from corruption, and could well have if they hadn't interfered."

"You dare!"

The time guardian, who had been the other side of this dialogue, looked amused. "You threaten me? Or perhaps, _the pillars_ threaten me? I can easily corrupt this Circle, and where would they be then? Be mindful of to whom you speak." He vanished.

Kain, tired of standing before them and being ignored like a supplicant, misted into several nets, which bound each guardian. It was most painful, but effective.

" I could easily have each of your throats out by now, but I have not deigned to do so. Yet. All I need is some information, then I will leave. Any objections?"

"We are not particularly up to date. Vampires have long memories. They know of the Sarafan purges. Strange, really, considering their only channel for such information is you. The Hylden are not exactly inclined to be amicable to pillar guardians. The humans don't care for us much either. Oh, you should know, as States Guardian, I can easily reduce you to chunks of net shaped meat, so I'd advise you to let us go." Kain complied, then used telekinesis to snare them instead. His mind was full of his new gift. So he could separate himself entirely from his main body.

_Hmm...could I unlock doors with this? Destroy machines from within? Glyph batteries? That machine in the Razelim chieftain chamber, could I sabotage that?_

And there and then he had the beginnings of a plan. Instantly, he teleported back to the crevice in that chamber, immediately cursing his petulant instincts. Information was far more important than revenge at the present time.

_A ripple of distortion spread across the pillars chamber..._

The balance guardian snorted. "Kain flees from us, even in our weakness? A good omen."

"Do not delude yourself. There was no fear in his eyes." This from Mind

"Then we must hunt him down, and instill such fear."

"Why bother? Without Balance protecting him, he is as vulnerable as the next vampire, and the land is very...hostile presently. He most likely will not meet us again."

"And if he does?"

"I'll leave that to you."

_That chapter was...abominable, though better than the previous. As plausible as a glass hammer. Still, it paves the way for more interesting things to come._


	8. Chapter 8

_Writer's block passed. Will update soon. This chapter isn't great, but I need Kain to get past somehow._

**Defeating Kain is hazardous to your health**

The Melchahim seemed completely unsurprised to see him. It was about to speak, but Kain cut it off with a sharp "Quiet! I will need to concentrate for this."

The Melchahim shrugged, and suddenly appeared on the verge of laughter. Ignoring it, Kain misted into five pieces shapeless pieces of mist, which flowed down across the room, searching for the machines. Except for the head, this remained hovering in the crevice. The Melchahim was watching with interest.

At present, the blood level was about halfway up its full height. And draining. Perfect. One of his fragments found the open door that the fish thing had used to enter, and jammed it shut. Another found the door the sparrowhawk had used, and did likewise. But then one of the mist fragments found something that made Kain modify his plan. He sent his final mist segment searching, until he found the last necessity. Now all he needed was to wait.

But...It was very difficult to remain segmented for a long period, and Kain was already feeling the strain. If the draining took much longer, he wouldn't be able to hold. Carefully, knowing his energy wasn't limitless, Kain telekinetically lifted as much blood as he could towards the ceiling. Sadly, the sparrowhawk was very suspicious of the floating globule of blood and refused to swallow it no matter how tantalizingly Kain tried to present it. It knew he had a plan, and was wary.

By the time the drainage had completed, Kain's magical and energy reserves were down to almost nothing. But his aim was reached. The fish thing, with no door to escape into, was beached. Screeching a victory clarion, the sparrowhawk swooped. Kain waited until it was fully committed, then used one piece of mist to work the pump into overdrive and another to break down the restraints. Blood spurted in waves, granting the fish thing mobility. Even so, it wasn't enough. Kain was impressed at how quickly the sparrowhawk pulled out of its dive. But Kain was lucky. His magic reserves failed at that instant, and the blood he'd been telekinetically holding fell. It splashed into the lake not far from the sparrowhawk thing, distracting it just long enough for the fish thing's lunge to drag it beneath the water. Blood-sodden feathers or no., the hawk put up quite a battle, and managed to drag the fish thing to the ledge halfway up the room before it died. After which the fish thing devoured some of it, before drowning in the air. Kain's mist parts raced back to the crevice seconds before Kain re-formed. He then tried to telekinetically absorb their blood which he did for a time. Then different doors opened, and another fish thing and sparrow thing emerged. The sparrow thing alighted on the ledge with the corpses. Distantly, Kain heard the Melchahim say "That's Nicholas. Be careful, he's clever."

Nicholas glanced up at Kain, still feeding, and grinned. He slashed into the fish things skin with surgical precision. Blood spurted out, and, courtesy of Nicholas' amazing precision, hit Kain in the mouth. He was knocked a few steps back, but continued feeding on the immense bounty of blood. It was...sublime. He didn't want to stop. Suddenly he sensed alarm from the Melchahim and was roughly yanked away from the stream. Kain turned to berate the creature, then collapsed. He spasmed, vomited, and sweated blood as his metabolism screamed into overdrive in order to deal with the immense overdose. If he hadn't used almost all his energy dealing with the creatures, he would have exploded by now. Distantly, very distantly, he heard the Melchahim say "Perhaps I should have told him I had an escape tunnel dug to Melchahim territory."

One of the humans replied "It's much more entertaining this way."

That was quite possibly the most irritating statement Kain had ever heard, which placed it high on the ranking for Most Irritating Statement In Nosgoth.


	9. The Citadel

_This chapter is another meaningless meander. Enjoy._

**The Citadel**

The Priestess bent low over her mirror, staring deep into it. With the Citadel under attack, she couldn't spend long, but she tried to keep abreast of news. Yes, the Razelim were still trying to bring down the Ward Gate over Ash Village. Except for this scouting party besieging her Citadel. Barely a hundred of them, but more than enough. She blinked, and the image changed. At the Pillars scrying was always hazy, but she picked out two of the so-called Guardians, arguing at the top of their lungs. The mirror did not transmit sound, but after long practice you learned to read lips.

"Calm down! That vampire will never make it back here. And even if he does, why would he harm us?"

"It isn't some curious fledgling, you idiot! This is Kain we're talking about! The cemeteries are full of people who pissed him off, and that's only the ones who got buried!"

"Perhaps, but-"

The Priestess blinked, and unbidden, her mirror sought out the thing occupying her thoughts at that moment. Kain appeared in the mirror, writhing and coughing blood. The Priestess extended her senses through the mirror, forming the mental spike used for possession.

_Never go into direct conflict with a powerful vampire._ It was a mantra that had served her well. But her predatory instinct had served her well also, and she knew Kain would be a powerful slave, if she could subdue him. Helpless, she watched herself move in for the kill.

What was going on in Kain's mind couldn't be called thought, not with the blood busily trying to consume it. But even the most primal, basic mind knows when it is being attacked, and as the spike penetrated his wards he launched as powerful a counterattack as he could. But the spike, instead of crumbling to dust as he expected, was merely dented, although it withdrew speedily. With his primal, hunter's instinct in full battle mode, Kain followed.

The counterattack blasted the priestess backwards, through the window behind her. Abandoning her vessel, she flung her soul upwards, inhabiting the nearest corpse. That was an ability even her predecessor couldn't have done, but she was lucky she had the gift. With all the displaced souls wandering around, the Citadel was a positive haven for sluagh. Once robbed of a vessel, the soul only had a short time in the Material plane, and if a Priestess or Priest phased to spectral, he/she was easy prey. But this time, the Priestess found and inhabited a vessel in plenty of time. It was male, but she didn't intend to use it for long. Standing up, she was about to speak when the crossbow bolt took her in the base of the skull. Before the corpse hit the ground she had already found and inhabited a new vessel. But it was irritating.

Turning to her attendants, she said, with no little menace in the sentence, "What happened to the barrier? A crossbow bolt should not have penetrated!"

"We do not know, My Lady."

Possessing two nearby corpses, but holding on to her original vessel, she had them carry her former vessel to her. Kneeling, she examined it. It was not a Razelim arrow. The arrow was of human origin.

"So still they try. Max, have a squad of Berserkers summoned."

Berserkers were men and women possessed so many times their minds had been consumed, and in service to the Priestess and her servants. They would follow any order. The squad that fired that crossbow bolt would be unable to hold.

A dozen Berserkers strode into the room. At her gesture, they began throwing themselves out the window.

"Great shot!" Errol exclaimed, clapping the other man on the back. The man acknowledged the praise, but grunted sourly.

"I should be on the wall."

"And let the Priestess escape? I think not."

"Errol, think. She can escape whenever she wants."

"When denied of vessels, Priestesses die like everyone else. You've killed enough of them to know."

"I know. But she has twenty thousand Berserkers inside that tower, along with who knows how many corpses. If she needed to escape, she could have them jump out a window until she could walk down the mound. And do you really believe that there are no other ways out than the doors we guard?"

"You're right. But I cannot do nothing. If you'd been with me that day, seen your daughter gutted in front of you, so many 'casualties of vampire attacks' consumed by her need for more vessels..."

"I know that too. But I-"

"Watch above!"

The first Berserker came down between them. Ducking, dodging, and cursing, the five men managed to escape unscathed. They retreated into a small shed, with a thick stone roof. Errol looked out at the mangled corpses.

"Such waste."

"Oh, but many more can be spared, Errol. Your soldiers, however, can not."

One of the Berserker corpses was still alive, if fatally wounded. And with the blank eyes of the possessed.

"When the Razelim break through, you will be begging at the gates of the tower for the Berserkers. And they will be denied you. Would you see humanity rendered extinct because of ...aesthetic inhibitions? Think on that."

Errol's voice was dangerously quiet. "Oh, I have. And you are correct. Perhaps I shall submit myself to your priestess. But, even if I do, you will not survive to see it. You may not have noticed, there are no potential vessels for a hundred paces in any direction."

"Idiots. What of yourselves?"

Errol allowed an evil grin to rise.

"The effective range of a crossbow is two hundred paces, and your vessel is incapable of mobility."

By the time the despairing scream rose the men were already thirty meters away. They fired the arrow at fifty, then kept running. Before long, the edge-of-hearing faint scream that marked the passing of a Cultist rose.

"How many's that?"

"950, give or take three or four."

"Well, if we do offer terms, at least we got most of them."

'There is that."

The Priestess advanced to her window, keeping out of sight. Errol was getting beyond irritating now, maybe so much as an actual threat to her. Max had been stupid, and now he was gone. Errol's soldiers had destroyed most of the Cult, if only because the Priestesses had been careless. So surprised at being actually assaulted, most of them hadn't had the wits to change vessels in time. And some of those that had, well, burning down a building without entering generally destroyed all vessels in the area. The surviving Cultists had fled to her temple, the only one secure enough to withstand Errol's carefully synchronized assaults. On the other hand, she now had twenty thousand Berserkers at her disposal, carefully withheld from the walls. And a plan. But her predatory instinct may have had spoiled it. Kain. It was difficult to foresee what he would do. Formerly, the Cult had aided the vampires, but the last occasion he knew of, they had stormed Zephon's cathedral, unsuccessfully, of course. The previous High Priestess had fallen to Zephon, and most of the Cult had been taken as slaves by the clan. But he could blame the previous High Priestess for that, and be benevolent to the others, who had helped sustain the vampires for so long. But if he had been astute enough to recognize the mind that had tried to possess him...Oh, God, what a mess.

Looking out the window, she shifted her perceptions to examine the wards that should have repelled that crossbow bolt.

There were spider-web cracks all across it, concentrated most thickly directly outside her window. Whole sections had dissipated. Either the humans had come across a new, powerful magic, or...

_He tried to follow me. Did he survive the impact?_

Going back to her basin of water, she blinked. Following her thoughts, the basin showed her Kain, getting to his feet just outside the city. This was getting complicated.

Turning away, troubled, she was confronted by another attendant, this one with a slightly hunted look.

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't we send out the Berserkers before the wall collapses?"

"Already, most of the Cult is defending the city. That is enough."

No, it is not. The human grunts are hard pressed."

"Exactly. We need them like that."

"What?"

She sighed. "The humans on the walls can see most of us are helping by possession. They will think it an act of goodwill, considering they just massacred us. They also believe that the Berserkers are hemmed in by Errol's foolish crusade. When the Razelim break through, they will lynch Errol themselves, allowing us to save the day by wiping out the Razelim. Then, the city will welcome us back with open arms. Have I _explained _to your satisfaction?"

"That could turn on us easily. What if the Razelim decide to avenge their squadron and throw their full strength at us?"

"Then, we flee, allowing them to massacre the grunts."

"And when they hunt us?"

"Head to the coast, possess fish, flee the continent."

"And there?"

"Wait couple of centuries, then go back."

"To what?"

"You inquire too much. Be silent."

The Ward Gate shattered. A dozen pedestals charged Raziel. Fending them off easily, he leapt back to his subcommander.

"Where is Relis?"

"We don't know. He's due back from that scouting mission hours ago."

"Track them. Now."

"Yes, my Lord."

_It takes hours to breach the Ward Gate, and then a quarter of my force vanishes? Treachery, Relis? No. You aren't that foolish. Someone is meddling. _

Kain stood up, near the edge of the city. Hitting the Wards had hurt, and some of his blood had been burned away. He now could manage one coherent thought every few minutes. But the Bloodlust was still in command. Snarling, he began running towards the sounds of fighting.

Sadly, as a consequence of the bloodlust, his eyes were glowing red, which made concealment slightly difficult. The red mist was also impairing his vision, so the three fledglings managed to sneak up on him. Not that it did them any good. He drank the blood and moved on. A dragon-form Razelim reared in front of him. Weapons forgotten, Kain leapt on it tooth and claw. His left upper fang broke on its scaly throat. That angered him. In a frenzy, he rained blows upon it, ripping out its tongue as it attempted to breathe flame. It turned and attempted to flee, not daring to open its fragile wings. Kain leapt after, literally. But in mid air he was swatted aside by the huge spiked tail, slamming him into the ground. With all the excess blood, his shattered ribs healed almost instantly, but the precious seconds it took him to get up meant his quarry had vanished. Howling with rage, Kain ran on.

Soon after, he came to the citadel gates. Perhaps ten fledglings were cowering under a dragon Razelim as it shouldered the gates, which were taking damage. It was not the same dragon that had fled him, but it would suffice as a substitute. He began sprinting for it just as the gates gave. Unable to fit through, the dragon nevertheless stuck through its head and began breathing flame, in order to gain the fledglings time to enter. A portcullis descended, neatly beheading the dragon. The gates swung closed again, not _quite_ as damaged as they seemed. Cheers rang from the walls as most of the fleeing fledglings were cut down by arrow fire or crushed beneath the dragon's corpse.

Kain was incensedHow dare they_, how dare they, _deny _him _a kill like that. _Him! _

It never registered that there was a crossbow bolt in his shoulder. Before a few seconds had passed, his sheer healing power had forced it out. Setting himself, he Jumped. He sailed up to the wall, fully intending to massacre the humans for their audacity, despite being peppered with crossbow bolts. But he'd misjudged the leap and landed well beyond the wall, still being hit by several bolts. He began to run back towards the wall, but after several dozen hits, even Kain's primal, blood crazed, enraged mind realized he'd be cut to pieces if he persisted. Snarling, he fled deeper into the city. Sadly, men, women, and children were at the walls so no one could be found. But there were signs of life at the tower.

"We found them, my Lord."

"Where?"

"It was strange. They scattered to any amount of strange places. The abbey, the cathedral, the abyss, the citadel, the chronoplast...

"And Relis?"

"The human citadel. Siege. Less than a hundred in his group."

_Priestess._

"You take command here. Withdraw for now, but on your life do not let them re-establish that outer Ward Gate. Keep enough pressure on them for that, but stand down the others. I'll take a quarter of our forces and split it to reclaim them. Get me four good captains to command the different detachments in my force."

"And where will you be?"

"The Citadel."

Raziel leapt atop a dragon and was gone.

Kain crashed through a lower window of the tower, hungry and powerful. The unfortunate Berserker beneath him died instantly. His companion swung his six foot 'bastard' sword and lost his wrist, also dying when Kain's other claw slashed his throat. Another Berserker moved in, cutting Kain's throat. Blood gushed out briefly, but the wound healed almost immediately, and the downward slash follow up was caught, while both Kain's hooves smashed through the Berserker's chest. Kain glanced around, guarding his kill. There was nothing in immediate range, but two Berserker archers at the end of the corridor were drawing a bead on him, under the supervision of a priest. There was no room to dodge. A Kain thinking clearly would have no trouble with such opponents, but this Kain was not. He fled into a side passage, deeper into the tower.

The Priestess was beginning to think she'd made a mistake. Kain was in the tower, and, judging by his actions, in no mood to be reasoned with. If he kept disturbing her minions, her carefully concocted plans were dust. She bent low over her basin, looking for anything to get her out of this wretched situation.

Behind her, the Wards dissipated. She turned. The dragon breathed.

One floor below, a corpse opened its eyes. Damn, she'd forgotten what being burned alive felt like. Cautiously, she gave orders that a hundred Corpses and a dozen of the more gifted Cultists seek out Kain, and everyone else to battle stations. The situation could be retrieved yet.

Kain graciously removed a corpses head, and flung it at the other. He'd killed about thirty of the creatures hunting him, and two priests, but he'd been ambushed in the centre of a wide hall and they'd bled him a good amount. He was spiraling back towards coherency. Twenty corpses, armed with crossbows and broadswords, were coming up behind, with a similar number in front. He ducked into a side passage and fled. They'd learned to respect him, so crossbows first, no hand to hand until he was cut to rags.

The side passage ended in a room. No ways out. He turned to face the sixty or so corpses bursting through the doorway behind him. They charged. Kain didn't notice the Cultists circling. Then, his world dissolved in flame. Burning, melting, charring, pain. The ten Cultists were pouring everything they had into the blast. Abruptly, the blast stopped, leaving Kain fully coherent and with only a little excess blood. But they only saw him as Kain, still standing, looking unharmed. He grinned at them. They fled, the corpses that had remained intact after the blast included. Kain turned his mind to exactly how the hell he was supposed to escape, given that the priestess had surrounded the fortress with anti-teleportation wards.

A Berserker, moving a little less purposefully than the rest, wandered up to the top floor, where a pitched battle was in progress. It began to move away, but then a luckless priest followed it.

"Do you know what the penalty for cowardice is?"

"No, sir."

"You have a mind? Spy-"

Kain throttled the priest, unmindful that his illusion was dissolving. But, even when the priest's soul attempted to escape, Kain held it tightly until it dissipated. The scream that followed the death of a Cultist followed. He exited the floor unchallenged.

Erissa collapsed to her knees next to the Priestess, whimpering. Having a piece of your soul devoured is a very painful sensation. But the Priestess had other worries than her fallen underling. Kain would be heading down soon. And then he was there.

"Your tower has not been hospitable, my Priestess."

"Nor have you, my Lord. You abandoned us to the Zephonim, and we've only barely recovered before you strike at us again? A Lord has an obligation to protect his subjects." If she was dead in any case, best to make a stand. At least he might see reasoning behind her bitterness.

"True. But the Zephonim came before the human subjects, and the then priestess was punished for her crimes. I do not appreciate being assaulted."

He advanced with menace on his face. Two Berserkers ran at him. They were both gutted in a single swing. But he stopped to feed on them, leaving her enough time to flee.

He descended several more floors, looking for a window or balcony from which to leave. The sounds of battle did not diminish, suggesting the humans had been driven back. Time was passing.

Eventually, he came to a door more ornate than most. Kicking it wide, he beheld a lake, with pillar tops for crossing, piled high with corpses in various stages of decay. At the opposite end, there was a ledge about fifty feet up upon which stood the priestess and two squads of Berserkers. The other Cultists had decided to make their stand two floors below, if the vessel he'd met on the way down was to be believed. And behind the Priestess, a small window, just wide enough for Kain to fit through. Galling as it was to flee, he had no wish to face the entire Razelim clan on a bloodcraze hangover. He began leaping from pillar top to pillar top. He got about halfway across before the wall caved in near the ceiling of the room and Razelim began pouring out. To no avail. The Priestess had chosen her battle ground well, and she only had to distract them briefly before the water claimed them. Taking advantage of her pre-occupation, Kain Jumped up to her platform. But then a figure pushed through the Razelim ad floated down beside him.

"What form of combat, Master?" Raziel grinned at him. "Dark Gifts or physical?"

"Physical. I prefer to give prey a sporting chance."

"Indeed? I don't recall you giving _me_ a chance to flee."

"You were a disobedient servant, not prey."

"And that has changed now?"

Raziel unsheathed his spear. Kain drew his sword. Not the axe, Raziel was cat quick, and he'd need a weapon he was familiar with. Misting his arm, he brought out the wraith blade. Raziel's eyes widened slightly, but he did not remain disconcerted for long. A similar weapon unwound from his arm. Then he was moving.

As expected, Raziel's reactions had not slowed. Despite the fact that he was wielding a more awkward weapon, he had Kain driven back within seconds. When he suddenly flung his spear, Kain almost didn't avoid being nailed to the wall. And again when Raziel telekinetically brought the spear back to his hand. The only advantage Kain had was he was slightly stronger, and he abandoned finesse for force. A mistake. Raziel blurred, scratching a deep cut across his chest. He backed off four paces, lazily tossing his spear from hand to hand.

"You have much declined, Master. Where is your skill?"

Kain charged. As Raziel tried to bring his weapon between them it was batted aside, and Kain shoulder charged him in the chest, driving him through the balcony rails and out over the lake, also using the last of his excess blood to deliver a hilt smash in the face. He felt the jaw break, and using Raziel as a platform, leapt back to the balcony. Turning, for an instant he thought Raziel would fall into the pool, but when he was no more than a metre above Raziel managed to open his wings. He settled on one of the pillar tops and looked up at Kain, much amused.

"I had thought that trick reserved for tavern brawls, but again you break tradition memorably, Kain. Shall we try again? Dark Gifts in use?"

"I have Dark Gifts far beyond yours, _child. _It would be unjust."

"Oh? You think me powerless?"

Raziel leapt forward and struck the wall with one fist. It exploded in a cloud of blue lightning, but Kain was already gone. The Priestess, however, was not. As the lake drained, Raziel was heard to remark "You were never overly concerned with justice before, Kain. I know flight when I encounter it."

_Although I can't put my finger on why, I really don't like this chapter at all. I think Raziel seems slightly...childish?_


	10. Answers

**Answers**

Back in his cave, Kain took up the most recent suit of clothes dropped by his faithful, to replace the ones burned off by the humans. That done, he collected another set of basic travel equipment they hadn't yet dropped down another corpse. Business finished, he teleported back to the now familiar crevice in the wall of the Chieftain's chamber, emerging into Melchahim territory.

There was nothing in sight beyond the usual scenery in The Gardens of the Dead. No Melchahim, no humans, nothing living. Ominous, perhaps? He ascended the Gardens unchallenged, and was fully wary as he entered the building at the top, to be greeted by...

A vampire, seated and facing away from him, idly playing knucklebones. Not a Melchahim. Kain took a silent step forward...

"I know you're there. It is Kain, is it not?"

"It is. And you are?"

"My name is Resel. But I think you wish for more? Do you play?" The dice telekinetically rose to Resel's hand, and he began juggling. For a fraction of a second, Kains talons itched. He fought down the urge, and Resel found himself telekinetically slammed against the wall.

"What has become of the Melchahim?"

"Ever so polite."

Kain was telekinetically slammed into the wall opposite.

"Nothing. They elected me to be the one to speak to you. You did not gain much awe respect with your condition upon your arrival."

The force holding Kain to the wall wavered, then broke. He landed lightly, then quickly held his sword to the other vampire's throat. Resel seemed unfazed.

"Would you slay your answers so easily, Kain? Come." He vanished. Irritated by the theatrics, but desiring those answers, Kain headed deeper into Melchahim territory.

He found Resel again on the shores of the lake, again juggling.

"You spoke of answers?"

"What do you wish to know?"

"What has become of my empire since I left?"

"Very well. Hmm, where to begin. Ahh...After you vanished, Razelim began filtering down into nosgoth from the north. Being none too pleased with you for betraying our Lord, we chose not to hinder them, even supplying them for their journey. However, they then embarked on a feeding frenzy, and devolved at a remarkably quick rate. In a concerted effort from both clans, most of the most devolved were sealed in the Chieftains room, with only occasional criminals and stagnant blood to feed on. The Hylden, as they call themselves, broke through into Nosgoth above the Abyss, and quickly established a base there. But their was a malfunction of some sort, and they were driven away, settling in Ash Village. But enough, you spoke of the Clans. The Zephonim, as you may know, were devastated in The Passing of the Wraith, though I'm told some cling to existence in the mountains. The Dumahim abandoned Ash Village for the Cathedral, where an enterprising Dumahim smith adapted the pipes, creating handheld weapons lethal even to the Wraiths of the type similar to the one that destroyed the Council. There were thirteen wraiths, but the Dumahim have destroyed four. The Rahabim are unassailable in their abbey, whether vampire, human, wraith, or Hylden tries to enter. The Turelim are sealed from the rest of nosgoth, and not much is known beyond the fact that they are still alive. This news is reasonably recent, as our tunnel network keeps us abreast of news. And now, you have what you came for, please leave Melchahim territory without delay."

Please _Leave_? The gall of this creature was almost beyond belief! He was not even a Melchahim!

"Do you have the authority to bid me depart? You are no Melchahim."

"Oh, you wish for my tale? As you wish. First know this; I am, technically, older than Vorador."

"I was under the impression Vorador was the first Blood Vampire. You are not an Ancient either."

"You were correct. But I was born before even the Hylden/Vampire Wars. I preferred the Hylden way of life to the Ancients God. When the war began, I, ahem, betrayed the Ancients, losing my life for the Hylden cause. They buried me with full honours. When Vorador fled you, he was forced to settle in Ard'Ak, which you once crudely dubbed , 'the Hylden city'. Finding my tomb, he revived me, thinking me a stalwart of the Ancients, as a Hylden had carved on my tomb for his own amusement. When Vorador discovered the truth, he tried to destroy me, of course, and I barely escaped with my life, fleeing to Nosgoth. The Melchahim sheltered me, and when I recovered, my Gifts were useful to them."

Kain's anger had been slowly building during this speech, but it had been unnecessary. An adult Melchahim was climbing out of the ground, eyes blazing more than usual.

"That is not the story you told us, Resel."

"Oh s-"

Resel vanished. Kain smote the ground several times, until the Melchahim stayed his hand.

"Do not fear. I can ensure he does not gain shelter elsewhere. But this presents us with a problem. We had been using his knowledge to produce primitive Ward Gates that warned us of Razelim attacks. They did not repel them, but gave us enough warning to go to ground. Without his knowledge, what do we do?"

The Melchahim was looking to him hopefully. He would be disappointed.

"I know nothing of Ward Gates."

"The Melchahim bowed, unsurprised.

"I shall seek guidance in the shrine."

"Shrine?" _If the Wheel has a following here..._

"Yes, the shrine. To Melchiah."

Relieved, Kain felt his curiosity emerge. A shrine to Melchiah? Oh, how he would loathe that. A monument to his mortality, his perceived weakness. Despite Melchiah's pretended indifference, some of Zephon's slurs had cut deep. Kain could remember the day Melchiah had bested Raziel in spear combat. The incredulity on most of the watching faces, the Razelim's undisguised. The adoration on the Melchahim's. The satisfaction on Turel and Rahab's. The shock on Raziel's as he got to his feet, the "Congratulations, little brother" untainted by chagrin. Even Kain had not been able to keep his face impassive, and the pride had shone through. And Melchiah? He had believed Raziel had been holding back.

"My Lord?"

"May I enter this shrine?"

"You must ask the Guardian."

"And where is he?"

"Inside the shrine."

"So, to ask him, I must enter?"

"Not necessarily-"

Kain was already gone. He knew exactly where the shrine was. The old Execution chamber.

When he got there, the gates almost cut him in half as he entered. A Melchahim, presumably the Guardian, leapt down from atop the blade.

"How dare you, the very creature that caused his death, _defile_ his tomb like this?

"I dare because-"

But the Melchahim was not listening. He dematerialized except for his sharp, sharp digging claws, and came at him. Seizing the claws in a telekinetic grip, Kain propelled the creature under the blade, then telekinetically pulled the lever. The Melchahim dematerialized just in time to avoid death, but remained trapped inside the blade.

Crossing to the large clay urn upon the dais, Kain knelt next to it, saying

"The Guardian is right. I cannot justify myself, but I can say, I am sorry for causing your death."

He raised the blade. The Melchahim, now released, spat, "And now you intend defiling the other shrines?"

_Other Shrines?_

Kain teleported away. He had a mind to visit the other shrines.

_Not a meaningless meander, no matter how much it might look like one. Yes, Resel was another long backstory for the sake of explanations. Reviews welcome._


	11. The Cathedral

**The Cathedral**

In his time, Zephon had not been overly concerned about security. He had relied mainly on the structure of the original building, large stone doors at the exit, and enough simple yet time consuming block puzzles to reduce the most patient sage in nosgoth to incoherent rage. As has been the intention of the humans the building originally belonged to. In the original siege during Kain's conquest, the legions had almost lost. The Cathedral had lost most of its army in a recent battle, but even the remnants had been enough to cause huge casualties to the vampiric legions as teams laboured to push blocks into wall cavities in precisely the correct slots while being fired on from perhaps only two soldiers, who still managed to disrupt the teams enough that Kain had been forced to call a retreat, resorting to siege and hoping the humans would starve before they could activate the pipes.

The Dumahim, however, were not content to rely on the human builders of centuries ago, and now the Cathedral was a formidable fortress. While the architects of the great Sarafan strongholds would be ashamed to have been involved in its construction, it served well enough. The Dumahim supposedly had a weapon far more dangerous than anything the Sarafan had possessed, and the fortifications existed merely to ensure they had enough warning to use it before anything got close enough to stand a chance of gaining one. Which the nine remaining Soul Reavers were attempting to do, to understand the one force that was a threat to them. Kain had come across some of them when surveying the fortress. Clearly bored, they had been careless, failing to perceive him, and he had thought it better to avoid conflict, in view of their immortality.

Ghosting around the Cathedral once again, he looked for some point of entry. Not many unguarded ones presented themselves, and if the weapon the Melchahim had spoken of could destroy wraiths, Kain did not wish to experience its effects. He endeavored to remain out of sight as much as possible.

On his third circuit of the building, he was spotted. A couple of conventional crossbow bolts were followed by a strange transparent projectile moving too quickly for him to attempt to dodge. It missed by several feet, and Kain was gone before they could fire again.

Just out of sight of the entrance, Kain considered his options. Was he to risk Nosgoth on a passing interest? Before the thought had finished forming he knew the answer was yes. His impulsive nature would cause his downfall yet. But how to enter?

Then it came to him, so obvious he was surprised he'd overlooked it. The Warp gate. Assuming the Dumahim had been stupid enough not to de-activate it.

Out side the Warp room, a lone human fired a crossbow at him. Kain snatched it out of the air and advanced, grinning. The human was in his sixties, far too old for skirmish duty. Deciding not to waste energy sparring, he teleported behind the human, a technique that always worked-

-Unless your target was clever enough to anticipate this and sidestep your attack without turning. Kain teleported again-

-And the human dived forward, anticipating that he'd slash instead of thrust this time. He came to his feet facing Kain, who was still grinning evilly.

"Your lifespan is measured only by whether you continue to guess correctly, human."

"Perhaps so, but I have spent my life fighting creatures such as you, and I will continue guessing for some time yet. I have outlived your ill-conceived empire, at least, and humanity will long survive _your _race. Consider this, Kain. Of all the clans, the Dumahim were the only one to directly conflict the human citadel. And the result of that? The clan, shattered and leaderless, were hunted down like the beasts they were, and now only a shard exist, which, unable to destroy the humans, attacked and killed a weaker clan, usurping their territory. We can, and will, best you yet."

All of which was only a means of getting Kain to kill him quickly. It succeeded in something different entirely. Kain could hear running feet. The Soul Reavers had heard the speech and were coming to investigate. He could not linger, but remained to deliver a closing remark.

"For such impudence, I shall leave you to _their _mercy. Think of me when you are devoured."

And with that he entered the Warp room, barely avoiding being seen by the oncoming Wraiths. Flicking through his possible destinations, he arrived at the top of the Cathedral and found it was not de-activated. Was it possible that the Dumahim had been stupid enough not to de-activate the Gate? Or was he walking into a trap? The Wraiths would enter soon, he had best decide quickly.

He walked through the Gate. The Zephonim Wraith leapt on him from the lintel. Kain felt the fangs strike the back of his armoured neck. Like Raziel, the creature had been revived with unnatural strength, but Kain was still strong enough to dislodge it and smash it against a gatepost. Unfazed, it sprang up again and leapt at him.

Two Dumahim fledglings burst into the room, followed by an adult carrying what looked like a strange form of musical trumpet.

A slight expansion of its cheeks was the only warning Kain had. He flung himself out of the way the tube was pointing. The shot hit the Zephonim Wraith, which fell to the floor writhing. It vanished, and Kain looked desperately around for it rematerializing. But nothing happened. Meanwhile, the Dumahim adult was firing his weapon through the portal as fast as he could draw breath, and at least four of the Wraiths assembled there had been struck. Some tried to flee, and the Dumahim picked them off with surgical precision. Finally, the Wraiths were either dead or fled, and Kain leapt up and shattered the symbol on the lintel of the Gate, ensuring no one could use it again. When he landed, the Dumahim had his weapon aimed directly at him. Kain raised his empty hands.

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't fire this."

"What will you gain? If I meant to harm you, I would have while you were occupied."

Kain considered telekinetically snatching the weapon, saw how tightly the Dumahim was gripping it, and reconsidered.

"What will I lose?"

"A possible way of re-establishing vampire sovereignty?"

"Empire? Don't speak to me of sovereignty. What good did it do the Council? All slain by the wraith you hid from!"

_Ah. Of course they lost respect for me, with that tale._

Kain activated the Wraith Blade. The Dumahim's eyes widened briefly.

_My God, he recognizes it! _

Kain decided on telling the Dumahim something more believable than the truth. Injecting just the right tone of anger into his voice, he said

"Hid from_? Hid from_? I fought that creature for weeks before I finally slew him, taking back the blade rightfully mine. You cannot conceive the anguish I have borne since the Council fell!" The last sentence was true, at least. "I was wounded enough that I was forced into dormancy for years, when I could have fled him, and I arise to the impudence of creatures like you! Why do you think the creature vanished, altruism for the remainder of the empire? I think not!"

Above them, unnoticed, the second Wraith Zephonim listened, intrigued. Along with the other, it had climbed the Cathedral unnoticed in order to activate the Warp Gate for the others. Unlike the other one, it had not tried to assault Kain when he had passed through, and if they failed to notice him and left, he might be able to gain one of the sound-weapons and return it to his master.

Below, Kain kept his face to careful amity. The Dumahim had believed him, and now he was to be let inside. He departed the room, flanked by the two fledgling Dumahim. The adult remained briefly. The Zephonim lunged, and was caught by a sound projectile. Laughing, the adult also departed, amused to think the Wraith had thought him so stupid, not to watch the ceilings.

Now empty, the glyph room remained unchanged for several hours. Then a Turelim materialized. He had crossed the Gate in spectral, but remained in spectral for what seemed to him to be several months. Now stranded, he had no choice but to depart the long way. He headed for the door.

-

Several hours earlier, Kain had entered Zephon's room. It was so thick with webs and eggs he could barely move, but he could clearly see the urn in the centre. Along with the Guardian. Several normal Zephonim stood trying to placate a large spider even more grotesque than Zephon had been. But no spider had red glowing eyes segmented like a fly's. It turned to him. Kain expected it to speak, but instead it lunged. He tried to step back, only to find his feet were stuck on the webs he stood on, hence he fell. And now his entire body was mired. The spider backed away and then spoke.

"Have you any final words, murderer of Zephon?"

"Final words? Presumptuous, aren't we?

"Oh, rest assured, you shall not leave here alive."

One of the Zephonim seemed about to protest, but a stern "Be silent!" made him stifle any objections.

"As I once said to Moebius 'But I am dead...as are you.' After which I severed his head. Do you wish to keep your head when I destroy you?"

"Brave words, Kain. But an insect survives long enough to kill even headless. And queens are more powerful than mere kings."

"Would Zephon like to hear you say that?"

The voice was hauntingly familiar. Where had he heard her before?

"My former consort would be pleased to see me reviving the Zephonim clan. Enough to forgive me one careless remark. I was not more powerful then. I am now. His duty of adding to our ranks has fallen to me and his other consorts. My own consorts' she waved a foreleg 'shall supplement the ranks of his own eggs until we achieve the restoration of the clan"

Kain was not listening any more._ Zephon found a way to produce fledglings naturally? And failed to infor- Of course, fool. He marked well the example of Raziel._

His thoughts broke as he noticed the spider advancing again. He tried futilely to move and wondered at the strength of the silk. The spider was atop him now. Venom dripped from her pincers.

"Any final words worthy of my ears, Kain? This is your final warning."

"Not as such, no. But you would do well to remember-"

The Immolate struck her dead on, and the air filled with the stench of burnt hair. She leapt to the end of the room, almost knocking over the urn in her haste. One of the Zephonim hastily steadied it.

"-not to present your weak spot to a living victim." But he was impressed. Few things could survive a direct Immolate. She turned to face him and he could appreciate the damage. Both eyes had melted like glass. One forelimb had burned to ash and one pincer had cracked off. Kain shed his skin and got up, removing his haversack from the web once given leverage. He turned to the spider, drawing his axe. She tried futilely to hide. Satisfied, Kain bent close to the urn and repeated what he'd said to Melchiah. He turned to leave. The spider threw an egg at him, almost overturning the urn. The twelve Zephonim were not pleased. They held the spider down while Kain cut her head off. Kain prepared to leave. But was there an almost imperceptible feeling of loss in his soul?

No. He dismissed it as remorse for allowing his lieutenants to be slain, no other option or not. But he could not escape a slight feeling of uneasiness as he departed before the spider could re-attach her head.

_I'm afraid this update may be the last for a while. I cannot think of any possible way for Kain to enter the Abbey. And yes, the Wraiths were vampires thrown into the abyss and revived like Raziel. I'll explain why the sound weapon destroys them later. _


	12. Chapter 12

_The dialogue to the Elder is so badly written! _

**The Wheel Turns**

Back in his cave, Kain took another set of clothes from the pile of sacrifices to replace the one ruined by the webs. If he wasn't more careful about his clothing, soon he might have to do without. And that would not present an impressive image.

Suitably clothed, he turned his mind to the problem of accessing the Abbey. He had been lucky with the Cathedral. That would not happen twice. He could always attempt an open request, but it was extremely doubtful they would accede. He had already learned what little respect most of his former subjects had for him in this age. What could be done?

It was at this point that the Wheel spoke to him, weariness in the tone.

"Why must you concern yourself with such trifles, Scion? Would you not be better served attempting to thwart me? I grow weary of your...pleasure trips."

Kain shot to his feet, axe in hand. The Wheel sounded amused this time.

"Weapons will serve you not, for here I am a voice, beyond your reach. But should I wish, you are not beyond mine. Do not irk me."

"If I was within your reach, you would have acted before attempting speech, and we both know that."

"Do we indeed? Ah, foolish Kain, refrain from underestimating my arm."

"Arm? I was under the impression that you were supported by tentacles, and weak ones at that, considering the ease with which I severed them."

Disgust now tinged the voice. "It seems the old adage 'never speak abstractly to a vampire' is more accurate than I perceived. The lack of intelligent foes in this era is so tiresome. Tell me, what is the purpose behind your journeys?"

"If you are indeed omniscient, should you not know?"

"Ah, but what is an adversary without hope? Whatever I say, you will persist to believe, so I grant you hope for my own amusement. Indeed, you will take even these words as veiled admission."

Kain was now ready to leave the cave, and thus said, "Much as I wish to continue this discussion, time presses."

"Oh? How so? You urgently must visit your other lieutenants' vacant corpses? To what purpose? They have long since returned to the Wheel. And even if I am lying, how do you intend to find Turel, or Hash'ak'gik, should you prefer. Even your purposeless quests are doomed to failure."

"Turel is not yet dead. I sent him forward on the Chronoplast, beyond our current conflict."

"Indeed, but Azimuth, unknowingly under my influence, took a portable time streaming device and returned him to the past, where he was possessed repeatedly by Hylden seeking entrance to this plane and lost his mind. Shortly before you met Raziel in Avernus, Raziel met, slew, and devoured him. The Cenobites were most upset to find their God slain, and interred the ash, where it survived intact to this day, all so I could taunt you with the knowledge you want held just beyond your grasp."

"You take some effort with your taunts. It must prove irritating to note that it will prove futile due to your arrogance."

The ground shook. Kain teleported from the cave just as it collapsed. Distantly, he heard the Wheel's voice.

"Ah, vampires. Such malleable minds."

He was not fooled. Telepathic speech is not overheard when you do not wish it to be. The Wheel _wanted_ him to hear that. The question was, which conclusion did it wish him to draw? Find Turel, or do not?

Could he find Turel should he wish? Turel had been interred thousands of years ago by a human cult. That meant history. History meant time-streaming. But he no longer trusted the time-streaming devices. He could meet Moebius, which would be disastrous, as Moebius would then know he had survived having his heart ripped out. So, what? A library? An _intact _library? Where? In his conquest of nosgoth, Kain had unwittingly destroyed much of Nosgoth's history. When he realized, he had paid a bounty on each intact book returned to his fortress, where a huge staff of humans had been given the task of organizing and preserving his library. But much had been lost, and cultists generally didn't submit their histories. Even so, an entire floor of his home had been converted to bookshelves, and as excess books flooded in not a few of them forged and then aged by enterprising traders, Kain had tried to spread them out to his lieutenants, all of whom had flatly refused. Rahab and Turel had cited the likelihood of water and smoke damage respectively. The others had claimed they had not the facilities to place and take care of fragile volumes. So Kain had been left with a vast amount of books and a rapidly diminishing treasury. So any volumes his staff had deemed useless had been delivered to Turelim territory to feed the furnaces. Would they have kept a book of annals regarding an obscure death cult from thousands of years ago? Unlikely. Yet why not try? Deciding it was best to set out immediately, while the information of the wheel was still fresh in his mind, he postponed the Abbey in his list of tasks and dissolved in bats. Whether his fortress was intact and if the books had rotted in his forty year absence were things to be reckoned with when he arrived. As a few wandering Dragon Razelim spotted the cloud of bats and took wing, he amended that to if he arrived.

Eventually, he lost the Razelim, finding the eternal cloud cover extremely useful. Sailing through a lower window of his fortress, he headed for the library, tense and expectant. His fortress could hardly be uninhabited, considering how well maintained it was. There were even burning torches in the wall brackets!

Despite this, he encountered no sign of life until he descended into the actual library, where the scent of human waste the latrines were built beneath the library, which was one of the reasons Kain had had the architect hung after it had been built was rampant. Searching the shelves, he recalled the filing system his servants had created, and headed for histories. He found the tome he wanted without difficulty, although with a short delay as he flicked through _The Lineage of Coorhagen: Adam the Great to Kain the Desecrated. _Once found, _Annals of the Cenobite _revealed what he was looking for almost too quickly. A thoughtful high priest had inserted an index and a contents page.

'...and when the Cenobites found the ruins of their god's vessel there was much despair, yet they followed Mortanius' last council and restrained their wroth, instead devoting their energies and minds to interring the vessel, lest their God wish to use it again. A small party left Avernus and buried the urn far to the north, though many were lost in the journey through Dark Eden to the tomb, which they sealed and protected with as powerful magic as they could devise without the help of Mortanius. Here, lest the tomb be lost, I enclose a map, as Kain's armies are soon to come, and I fear for the survival of the Noble Order Cenobite. Good disciple, protect the route as you can. Hash'Ak'Gik be with you.'

_Could you possibly make it any more convenient for me, Wheel of Fate? A message in the sky, perhaps?_

Of course, there was the possibility that it was deliberately set down like that to encourage Kain _not_ to go. Or just the Hub having little control, as he was increasingly coming to believe. In any case, he need not decide yet. There were still his other sons to visit. And visiting in ascending order seemed so fitting, somehow. His next destination was to be the Abbey. He teleported away, ignoring the elderly librarian who had been trying and failing to avoid notice as he crept up with the knife. Moving back to his niche, he summoned the gargoyles that were allotted to him by the chief librarian. The intruder had taken a book. Such crimes must be punished.

_Another meaningless meander? Maybe._

_Typical humans. Fanatically guarding something no-cared about._


	13. The Abbey

**The Abbey**

Kain reverted to one bat for the journey back to the Abbey. It was more difficult and energy consuming-you had to worry about alternating body mass and such- but was less likely to be noticed.

The journey took more out of him than he would have guessed. By the time he reached the Abbey, he was in desperate need of feeding. But not urgently enough that he couldn't put off his need for another few minutes. And he wanted to enter the Abbey, if only to irritate the Wheel by refraining from touching his son's corpse and yet coming close. It irked him that he was reduced to such petty gestures. He did have a plan of sorts, but without access to the spectral plane, no means of implementing it. In the meantime, he would irritate the Wheel in every way he could.

Seeing what he had been looking for, Kain alighted on the roof of the Abbey. As he had expected, no-one had bothered to replace the shattered windows once used by Raziel to slay his brother. Instead, light wooden screens had been put in place, which he easily removed.

Dropping into the room, he wondered at the lack of security. The urn was there, and if he knew Rahabim society, the guardian was sneaking up behind him-

-and he was wrong. Perhaps the Guardian had left to feed.

He was distinctly surprised when the Rahabim dropped onto his back like a Zephonim. He retained his balance, but his left eye filled with blood as a poniard pricked it.

"Hello, Kain. How may I help you?"

"The Guardian?"

"Correct."

"Hmm...At the moment, by releasing me. But otherwise, by answering a few questions. The other Guardians were...less than accommodating."

Kain blinked involuntarily, and his eyelid was sliced in half. It healed quickly, but bled a reasonable amount. The eyelid maneuver was the quickest way to drain a vampire, and if under it for an extended period, even the most powerful vampire suffered permanent eye damage. Best to get this over with quickly. He tried to listen as the Rahabim answered him, suppressing his rage.

"Sincere apologies, but I cannot accommodate your first request. I have no illusions of my ability to slay you in direct combat. As for the other, what do you wish to know?"

"What is the purpose of this guardianship? Excepting me, who has entered here in the last forty years, except perhaps the occasional Rahabim seeking guidance."

"You misunderstand, Kain. We do not exist to protect the urn. We exist to contain the spirit within it. The worshipping is incidental, merely a way of ensuring that we are fed without having to leave to hunt."

Kain was enraged. "You wish to prevent your Lord from returning?"

"No, Kain. The spirit attempting to use Rahab's former home is not his."

Kain bit back the question on his lips. The Rahabim were-had been- very close to their Lord. They would not mistake him for another lost spirit.

_That explains the sense of disquiet. Whatever inhabited the corpses was probably laughing at me. Hmm...Sealed within a vessel..._

Abruptly, and without any reason why it had manifested, a thought struck him. The Wheel had spoken to him from a vessel the first time he'd encountered it. The second time, on the abyss, in a very limited vessel of Hylden creation. But in the cave, it had spoken without need for a vessel. Was it normally bound to a vessel, and in destroying it he'd inadvertently released it? Perhaps the Hylden had somehow sealed it into that vessel on the abyss.

It was a ridiculous thought, but one surprisingly persistant. He spent the next five minutes standing stock still, thinking, much to the surprise and fear of the Rahabim Guardian. Eventually, he decided to travel to Ash Village and ask them. It was unlikely they'd let him get within a thousand feet, and apparently the bulk of the Razelim clan were there as well, so it was probably the most foolish thing he could possibly do in these circumstances. Therefore, it was obviously the correct option. He teleported away from the building, where the mystified Rahabim Guardian climbed back up to his watch post.

_Kain's thought processes are hugely erratic and illogical, but he seems to have good instincts. The last two chapters were pretty bad, because I'm rushing them in order to get to the next one, my second favourite chapter in this fic. Sorry._


	14. Ash Village

**Ash Village**

Deep beneath Nosgoth, the Wheel thought. Kain seemed to have no purpose, wandering nosgoth and enjoying himself. Currently, he was no threat. But he was becoming complacent and contemptuous, which could not be permitted. It was time to remind him who was the true God of Nosgoth.

A single tentacle slid towards the balance pillar.

**- - - - - - - - -**

About halfway to the former Dumahim territories, dubbed 'Ash Village' by the humans because of the central furnace, Kain's hunger left mere urgency behind and entered undeniability. Incoherency was mere minutes away. Dropping the bat-form to preserve energy, he set off in a fast, ground eating lope that he could ordinarily keep up for hours. Nowhere in Nosgoth, including, he had recently found out, the Human Citadel promised an easy meal. He was nearer to the Village than anywhere else, and both Hylden and Razelim were renowned for their quality blood. If he could gain it.

When the Wheel's voice reached his ears, Kain answered without slowing his stride.

"Greetings, Kain. Have you grown weary of wandering yet?"

"No...It is far more enjoyable than speech with you, at least."

The Wheel remained silent for a time. When it spoke again, the tone was mock-outrage, with amusement brimming just beneath.

"A grievous insult, Kain. For that, you must face my champion, despite your earlier comment 'Much as I enjoy this discussion,' I'm sure you will be pleased to see some semblance of distress from me, should he be slain."

Abruptly, a fledgling Dumahim was teleported to five paces in front of Kain. It could barely stand, and had not even enough blood reserves to heal a large wound in its side. When it saw Kain, its expression was terror, with perhaps a small portion of hope. It appeared as surprise to see him as Kain was to see it. If Kain was any judge, it had been exiled from its clan for weakness, with a beating to discourage a return, and was the most unlikely champion that could be.

_Is this an insult? Or a joke? Surely the Wheel does not expect it to prevail._

It was carrying a flamethrower, and it was a measure of how weak it was that it needed a weapon. It took a small step forward, and almost fell. This was ridiculous.

Kain would have been less on edge had the 'champion' been one of the Razelim chieftains. Where was the snare? Then the Wheel spoke, unheard by the Dumahim, and Kain found it.

"In retrospect, perhaps this duel is slightly one-sided. As the God of Nosgoth, I must be just. Hence I shall even the odds. It shall be interesting to watch."

Instantly, Kain fell flat as weakness assailed him. The Balance pillar was under attack, and rather than waste its own failing strength, it had drawn on Kain's to defend itself. If Kain had not resisted at the last moment, it would have destroyed him. And still might, if he took no care.

With a huge effort, he opened his eyes and focused them. The Dumahim was warily advancing, waiting for him to leap up and tear it limb from limb. When he made no such attempt, it took a small step, a dart forward-dart back movement. When he did not respond it gained confidence and discharged its flame-thrower. The flames licked his skin, but did no damage, yet. It might take the Dumahim hours to burn through. Wary of being drained again, he focused and managed to launch a telekinetic bolt at the creature. It flinched, but did not falter. Normally, the bolt would have broken most of its bones. And he had now alerted it that he could do no better. He dissolved in mist as its foot came down, and barely re-formed before it discharged the flamethrower. Evaporating was a painful way to die. But he would not last much longer. Siphoning some of his stolen energies from the pillar, he dissolved in bats and flew up the canyon wall, re-assuming his normal form as soon as he could. An audible curse came from below.

But the creature did not give up. After a few minutes, he began hearing grunts and sounds of claw on stone. The idiot was climbing after him. Crawling to the edge, he was alarmed at the progress the creature was making. It was already halfway up! Crawling back to his haversack, he removed and lit a torch, which strained his powers to the limit. No longer able to crawl, he rolled feebly back to the edge, and waited. As the Dumahim's shoulders gained the top, the torch as dropped on the flamethrower strapped across his back. It exploded, and the Dumahim and, to a lesser extent, Kain was enveloped in burning oil, and Kain lay there until the pillars beat off the attack and he could reclaim his energies. He was surprised to find that being drained had also quieted his metabolism, and he could still get to Ash Village.

- - - - -

The Wheel withdrew thwe charred remains of its tentacle. The Balance pillar had fought hard, but the others had been unable to help for fear of destroying it, and it had taken it some time to get free. No matter. Kain was suitably chastened. The Pillar's destruction could wait.

- - - - - -

Kain came upon the fledgling Razelim unexpectedly, so much so he almost let it escape. Afterwards, with his appetite whetted, if not eliminated, he came upon the outer rim of the Village itself, where the Razelim were trying feverishly to break the Ward Gate. There were five fledglings, and an adult that Kain would have assumed was a fledgling if not for the glowing red eyes. It was holding a staff similar to the one, and Kain smirked slightly at this, that had _almost_ allowed Moebius to be invulnerable. As he watched, the adult struck the Ward Gate with the heel of the staff. The Gate flickered, and three fledglings darted through before it re-established. The three vampires remaining outside began trudging around the circumference of the Gate, presumably back to the main body of Razelim. Kain broke cover.

The two fledglings flew at him like arrows. As the first reached him, he grabbed at by the wings and flung it at the adult mage, knocking it over. The staff fell from its hand, and Kain telekinetically summoned it, economically cracking the second fledgling's skull en route.

The mage rose and launched several flaming projectiles at Kain, at such a rate the he several came within inches of burning him. The first fledgling charged him again, the fireballs that struck it doing no harm that Kain could see. Not deigning to attack it, Kain attacked the mage. It switched its method to water projectiles, which certainly hurt the fledgling, but didn't manage to hit his actual target. When Kain got to within three feet, it switched its method again, and summoned a defensive bubble of water. A single telekinetic bolt knocked it into its own shield and it died screaming. Kain absorbed its blood, gaining him a new Dark Gift, which he named Inundate. It was basically Immolate using water, but lent his own skin no resistance to the element. Using the staff, he penetrated the Gate and began trying to work his way around the outer wall to a gate.

Eventually, he found the gate. The problem was that the bulk of the Razelim army was at it also, albeit on the other side of the Ward Gate. Now Kain understood Raziel's tactics. He was sending scouting parties into the Village to find the glyph battery, or, failing that, the pipe it took to the outer gate and destroy it, before he was willing to commit his entire army to battle. It was exactly as Kain would have done.

Raziel himself was glaring at Kain through the Gate. It was the same Raziel he'd met in the Human Citadel, he was certain of that, but his manner was totally different. Raziel spoke first.

"Kain."

"Creature." Kain would not give it the name Raziel until he could be sure the Raziel he knew inhabited it. Raziel was incredulous.

"Creature? You call me creature? I would think you should have more respect, knowing that you fled me the last time we met."

"If you have something to speak of, do so. If not, time presses."

"Then depart. We will have time to reminisce when I rule the empire with you chained to my throne as a hound. In the meantime, I would not keep you from your 'urgent business'. I should have known you would betray your subjects and seek sanctuary with the Hylden."

Kain did not dignify that with an answer. Instead, his arm found the keyhole in the huge double doors behind him and misted into the shape of the lock. The doors clicked open. And he was presented with a dilemma. Walking backwards through the doors was simply ridiculous, but he did not want to take his eyes from the Razelim in case they had the use of some projectile that could penetrate the Ward Gate.

Inclining his head towards the Razelim in gracious dismissal, he turned and flung the doors wide. And if his stride was slightly quicker than normal, what of that? He had just said he had urgent business inside. The doors swung back into place, absorbing the barrage of angry telekinetic projectiles. Inside, about twenty golem pedestals fired more lethal projectiles at Kain.

- - - - - - - - - -

_Some time later..._

Kain walked through the streets. Several times he'd met Razelim scouting parties, and had added two more staffs to his collection. There was networks of Ward gates all the way to the city's heart, and the Razelim's staffs only had a certain amount of energy in them. However, Kain had the advantage oof the Razelim in that he knew his way around the Village, and the likely places for Ward Gates, so he was now much further in than the most adventurous Razelim. Which only meant more pedestals. The Hylden had apparently perfected the technology since they'd built the building on the Abyss. The Pedestals he'd met here were more resilient, faster, fired more damaging projectiles, and were much tougher, so much so that Kain had begun avoiding conflicts where he could. Not because he couldn't destroy them, but because it took –so –damn –long!

His present location was totally devoid of Pedestals, however which was strange. He hadn't seen a Ward Gate in several minutes, which was bizarre. He was beginning to think that perhaps ash Village was abandoned, leaving only Ward Gates and Pedestals, which would be irritating if true. Although it might serve his ends. The Razelim clan would likely rip their Leader to shreds should all their efforts be wasted.

Then he heard the voices. Hylden voices. They were coming from a small alcove at the side of the street. He crouched beside it, listening.

"Sir, you must leave! All the others are gone hours ago! The vampires will be here soon."

"Hah! I've been here twelve years, and I am not leaving because of a vampire invasion!"

"Oh? The demon dimension is better than being subject to the Wheel, which you will be, soon enough. My Glyph armour is glowing like the sun, so they can't be far."

Cursing, Kain leapt back as far as he could from the alcove while remaining within earshot. The voice was still speaking

"-won't come, then I do have permission to leave you he- that's strange. My armour never fades that quickly unless...Vampire!"

A Hylden charged out of the alcove, waving his sword and screaming "Get out of here!" over his shoulder. The full force of Kain's telekinetic blast knocked him thirty feet down the road into wall. He didn't get up. Kain advanced on the alcove, grinning at the thought of all that quality blood after all those pedestals.

A wooden stool came flying out of the alcove, hitting Kain squarely in the face. He stumbled, and a second Hylden soldier ran at him. Kain was caught off balance, and the soldier's sword bit deep, snapping several ribs like straw. One of Kain's claws caught the soldier's arm and pulled him down after him. Kain rose first, even with a sword in his chest, and used the aforesaid item to impale his opponent.

Meanwhile, the civilian had run out of his home and sprinted down the street. The first soldier was getting up, and running towards Kain. Kain took a step towards the civilian and the soldier writhing on the ground caught his ankle, sending him sprawling. Rising to his knees, Kain removed a spear from its sheath and flung, taking the civilian just as he was about to round a corner. The second soldier was quite close now, and Kain rose to his feet. Whereupon the downed Hylden tripped him _again._ Then the other Hylden was on him. It made no attempt at swordplay, knowing if Kain got up it was as good as dead. A boot collided with Kain's jaw, knocking him flat again as he'd just sat up. The claws were going for his throat.

It was several minutes before Kain finally got a grip on the creature and cut him to pieces. Finally getting to his feet, he fed on the creature, then the civilian down the road, before advancing on the one he'd impaled who was somehow still alive. Its face was mostly resignation. And amusement. It was finding it difficult to speak, but managed.

"You're too late...All the others have gone back to the demon realm."

"I sincerely doubt that. The ones I knew might not have been noble, but knew little of cowardice."

"Cowardice? Its not...cowardice. No-one will allow their servants to die here, in the reach of the Wheel of Fate."

"You will."

"...Yes. As you almost did. Tell me this...what are you? Armour senses you, but you do not have glowing red eyes. Are you...Raziel?"

"No. My name is Kain."

"Kain..."

And then it died. But why did it suddenly look overjoyed? It was a question that irritated him as he fed on it before continuing on his journey.

- - - - - - -

Eventually, Kain found his way to the city's heart. As he'd expected, Dumah's urn was on his throne. He had not expected the Warp Gate built in front of it. Or the fact that no Hylden were present. Perhaps they had all fled.

The Warp Gate glowed green, and two figures stepped out. One was a Hylden, but the other was a vampire. A Vampire he knew, in fact. Resel, the same vampire who'd fled the Melchahim. The Hylden moved up beside the throne, but Resel continued walking towards him, sword drawn, but talking merrily. Kain drew one of his swords and misted his arm so the Reaver extended. Resel's stride did not falter, but his speech lagged for a fraction of a second.

"Hello, Kain my boy. It's good to see you. After I left the Melchahim, I came here, risking life and limb to bring them the news of your return, to find that they don't trust me. Me! Granted, I did betray them several times, but what good is a supposed spy when he doesn't pass on information! So, it seems the price of trust is, unfortunately for you, me attacking and slaying you. Awfully sorry."

And then he was attacking. Like most vampires, Kain's fighting style was something like this:

1.Grip weapon by handle

2.Place pointed end of weapon quickly into opponent's flesh.

3.Do not allow him to reverse the process.

4.Return to step one and repeat until opponent dies, using Dark Gifts where necessary.

That method usually worked, as few opponents would have vampiric strength or speed. However, Resel had vampiric strength and speed _and _was trained in fencing, which meant that he was slowly but surely cutting Kain to pieces. He also had similar Dark Gifts, so Immolate met Immolate, Inundate met Inundate, and Blood Gout met Blood Gout.

After some time, Kain realized he was being maneuvered back towards the Warp Gate. But the Glance backwards he'd used to ascertain this cost him, and his sword shattered in his hand. Jumping backwards, he leapt the Warp Gate, drawing his axe in mid-air. He came down mere feet from the Hylden beside the throne. His blade caught the creature squarely in the chest, and it fell like a tree. Before he could finish it off, Resel duplicated his leap and slashed at him. If he hadn't jerked backwards at the last moment, it would have removed his head. As it was, his throat had been cut. It healed quickly but he lost a lot of blood. Resel drew his sword back for a final stroke-

-and Kain went Berserk. The sudden onslaught drove Resel back through the now inactive Warp Gate and almost to the end of the room, before he fell. The final stroke severed his hand at the wrist. Kain drew another sword for the final stroke-

-and Resel went Berserk. The sudden onslaught drove Kain almost to the Warp Gate before he fell to his knees. Resel leapt him, spreading the blood from his wrist around in a wide circle, and the wounded Hylden flung a glyph battery. It landed in the circle of blood, and a Dome of glyph energy rose over Kain. Resel raced back to his hand, but was seconds too late. His arm had healed as a stump.

Enraged, he ran back up to Kain and thrust a fist at the Ward Gate as the Hylden shouted "No!" He disintegrated, screaming.

The Hylden, dispirited, walked back through the Ward Gate as another Hylden emerged. This one was older, and moved on a cane.

_Well, I did want to ask them questions. Now I may be able to._

Irritated at the slow pace of the creature, Kain decided to ask his questions now. First things first...

"What did you do to Janos Audron?"

"Janos? Why, nothing. He's legendary. Do you wish to speak to him?"

Kain was confused, but answered in the affirmative. They had not hurt Janos Audron? By the way the Sarafan Lord had spoken, he'd been a key figure in the creation of the pillars, and therefore hated by every Hylden in existence. Then he understood, as a glass urn was carried through the Warp Gate. It appeared to contain bloody rags, coupled with the occasional blue feather. The Hylden's voice was disgustingly self satisfied as it said, "While we did not harm Janos, we felt under no obligation to protect him from the demons. This is as much as we could find of his remains."

_Sorry its late. Computer trouble._


	15. Disquieting Revelations

_I'm confused over how much Kain knows, so I'm sorry if he asks a question he's seen in the murals in defiance_

**Disquieting Revelations**

The Hylden spent a few moments in silence, perhaps to allow him to pay his respects, before speaking again.

"If it's any solace to you, he proved surprisingly resilient. Five Demons fell before he was brought down."

"Janos was pacifistic. He would never have had a chance."

"Pacifistic? Perhaps against humans, though even that is doubtful. He would have no qualms about massacring Hylden, given the chance. What you witnessed was probably a charade. Janos was ever one to manipulate."

The Hylden's tone bordered on being condescending. Irritated, Kain opened his mouth. The Hylden cut him off.

"If you doubt me, ask him! Use whatever necromancy at your command, and ask him about Valley Ford! And watch his face. He will lie."

There could be no response to that. Difficult as Hylden features were to read, the Hylden seemed on the verge of tears. Now that Janos was dead, the Hylden had no reason to lie. Kain had to admit, he was curious. So he asked the obvious question.

"Valley Ford? I'm not familiar with the name. What happened?"

"A massacre. Our armies had driven Janos' brood back to Erithel, the city where the pillars exist in this era. The pillars had been completed, but not yet activated. But Janos was not content with mere exile. He wished for Hylden _blood._ But he didn't dare fight for it. So he used his only asset, teleportation, to travel behind our lines and massacre an entire city full of aged and injured."

"A city? Without aid?" Kain could not prevent the mockery from creeping into his tone.

"I'll admit we were ill prepared. Teleportation is normally used as a method of flight, not offense. Janos and his retainers-no, he was not without aid- hurt us sorely, but a city elder teleported to the front lines and brought us the news just as the pillars were activated."

"Hence the curse?"

"Yes. Oh, that curse was genius! Immortality, to seal them from the Wheel that ordered them to destroy us. Sterility, to ensure descendants could not escape the curse. Though eventuallythey bypassed that, of course. And, most ingenious of all, the fabric of the curse was woven into the pillars, the vampires' very weapon! While they stand, the curse shall remain. Given another few hours, we could have had them needing permission to enter dwellings and being burned by their own holy symbol!"

Kain was no longer listening_. Immortality? The curse of the vampires was Immortality? Does that mean that if I heal the pillars all vampires will die? No, he said as long as the pillars stand the curse remains. But I now have another means of removing the curse. Is that why the Wheel wants to bring down the pillars? To remove the curse so he can feed? This Hylden spawns more questions than answers._

Somewhere, his ears caught the Hylden speaking again.

"If you have more questions, Kain, I suggest you ask them quickly. The outer Ward Gate will not hold for much longer. Did you know you have just maimed one of our most talented glyph mages?"

"Why do you flee the Razelim? With your Ward Gates, you can destroy them easily."

"Perhaps. But not without casualties, and we know all too well what happens to all who die in this realm. We only re-entered nosgoth to keep aware of its happenings. We will not return until the Wheel is broken."

"The Sarafan Lord seemed to think differently."

"The Sarafan Lord? Oh yes...Hal'ak'gik. He was a dreamer, a madman. Unsatisfied with the demon realm, he dreamed of reoccupying nosgoth. And succeeded. But that did him no good in the end."

"No...he did not succeed in destroying Nosgoth."

"What? How?"

Glad to see he had finally unsettled the creature, Kain explained about the Mass. The Hylden's reaction was most satisfying.

"But it was destroyed! What was he using to channel it?"

"The glyphs."

The Hylden's relief was palpable.

"Why are you relieved?"

"He only tried to destroy vampirism. The mass magnifies its channels, it does not alter them. Only vampires are susceptible to glyph energy. Do you have any other questions? Quickly now, time is short."

Kain remembered the reason he'd come to Ash Village.

"When the abyss fortress was overrun, did the Wheel of Fate inhabit a Pedestal? Or did you seal it there?"

"No...sometimes a pedestal appeared with a Wheel carved into it. It was not of our making, and vanished whenever we fought near."

The Hylden walked away, back towards the Ward Gate. Kain stood up.

"What are you doing?"

"Leaving. That Ward Dome around you will not dissipate for weeks. I suggest you dig." It walked through the Gate, Leaving Kain to sit, think, and wait.

_Originally, this was part of my second favourite chapter, but I split it because it was going on too long. Now that I have it written, It's not as good as I thought. Like the first part, though. Please review._


	16. Nosgoth Stirs

_For people who haven't read Family Matters this chapter will be very confusing._

**Nosgoth stirs**

The Turelim sprinted down the corridor, casting urgent glances behind, with a sonic weapon in one claw. Reaching the edge of the pipe, he skidded to an abrupt halt, just short of going over. There was no escape that way, and the two Dumahim he'd killed would be missed before long. He could avoid his pursuers by shifting planes, but he couldn't escape the building that way. Or retain his weapon. So, his options were, one, linger, and be destroyed, or two, flee, and be destroyed. Not an enviable position. Behind him, he could hear claws on stone. The surviving Dumahim was tough, as the Turelim had found out firsthand. The weapon was useless to him, as even the backlash could incapacitate him for some time. The sounds came closer. His options had just been dramatically reduced. He waited.

As always, his aim was perfect. The telekinetically flung piece of webbing, hurriedly torn from the wall, settled across the Dumahim's face as it came into view. Old as it was, Zephonim silk was tough, and it would not get free for a few minutes. More than enough, even with no flame or items capable of impaling available. The Turelim stepped towards the thrashing creature-and stopped dead. Its sonar-though of course it didn't know the word- had detected a flaw in the wall. Tiny, certainly far too small to allow him to pass, but even a small flaw could be telekinetically expanded. The Turelim began frantically tearing away more of the webbing. Telekinetically, of course, he was not so stupid as to touch it with his claws. After some time, he cleared away enough to see exactly what he was doing. The flaw, of which only a crack had been detectable, was in fact a full window, blocked up since the original conquest of the Cathedral. Without a hint of hesitation, the Turelim leapt through it. Even for an immortal Soul Reaver, it was a fall to be reckoned with. It remembered in time to shield the weapon from the impact...

_Thud._

The Turelim had been trying for a fall that would spare the weapon the impact, but return him to the spectral plane. It was unlucky. While the weapon survived intact, the impact was just short of what was needed to return it to the spectral realm, thus removing it from possible sound projectiles. One such struck it between the shoulder blades, sending it into spasms of agony. Thought ceased to exist, as it focused only on the pain.

- - - - - -

Zephon locked impassive stares with his brother. They were the last remaining-soon; one or the other would be defeated. Rahab's expression became one of resignation, but Zephon knew it to be false. But soon, it would become genuine, if he could-

Disgusted, Zephon crushed that line of thought before it could get any further. Melodrama was useful for keeping boredom at bay, but there were limits. He laid down his cards.

"Straight Flush"

"Four allies. Congratulations, little brother." Rahab stood, handing over the scraps of tentacle skin they used for stakes. Material objects could not be affected for more than a few seconds, so Melchiah had donated strips of his skin to use as cards, each laminated by Zephon's silk, and carefully scratched in designs in the patterns of the four suits, Coins, Wands, Flames, and Cups. They also had a chess set, tentacle skin stretched over a piece of Dumah's armour, with fragments of the pillars for pieces. They could affect those, at least, the pillars existed in this realm, and were not mere reflections like everything else.

Zephon collected his winnings, and leaned against the reflection of Kain's throne. They no longer hunted the tentacles, except when boredom offered no other diversion. They didn't need to. Apparently when they had first arrived, they had almost starved only through long established habit. It was a most strange plane, this, but they now called it home, if reluctantly.

According to Turel's calculations, they had been trapped here almost 120 years, which meant that perhaps forty had passed in the plane they formerly existed in. Zephon still could not comprehend how Turel had lasted 12000 4000 in the other plane years here, alone, without attempting suicide or becoming even more insane than he'd been when they'd found him. Turel himself said that the only thought keeping him from doing just that had been the thought that the other brethren would be murdered and join him eventually. Which Zephon found difficult to credit. It was not as though they were hugely entertaining company.

This existence was affecting them all, except perhaps Turel and Dumah. Turel still was overjoyed that he now had...what? Companions? Friends? Zephon doubted it. While they enjoyed each others company more than the alternative, trust was out of the question. Dumah, on the other hand, had cultivated patience beyond belief through centuries of being dead, which had been excellent practice for this situation, though less easily escaped. Zephon now understood why the attempts to destroy them had been so casual, after their initial murder. After a few millennia in this plane, souls would welcome another attempt on their lives. It was only through sheer stubbornness that none of the brothers had succumbed already. That and a mutual desire for vengeance against Raziel. Which was, of course, impossible. Even If they could somehow escape this plane and find Raziel, he would probably beat them all to bloody pulps. He was immortal now, and he served the tentacled entity.

Abruptly, Zephon stiffened. That scent...what did it remind him of? Human warriors? Surely he was imagining it, nothing existed in this plane but tentacles, the brethren, and sluagh. Yes, merely a thought. He could not detect it now.

The others had noticed his distress, and leapt to their feet looking eager to fight something-anything! Melchiah grinned at him tiredly, saying

"Winning at cards distresses you so?"

Zephon tried not to grind his teeth. If he had to bear one more jibe from his brother, he would break his jaw, blackmail or no blackmail. He would probably have gotten free of those tentacles eventually. What was most irritating was, Melchiah normally didn't use that sort of humour, and used it only to irritate Zephon, knowing he couldn't riposte. God, he needed to get off this plane soon.

That could be arranged.

"Oh? How so?"

The others looked confused. The voice had an odd sound, similar to grating stone. They'd all heard it, but Zephon knew the thought had been directed at him.

We need protectors. Guardians, if you will, to battle when the Wheel of Fate strikes at us.

"Indeed? And we gain what? Your eternal gratitude?"

Did you not understand what 'that could be arranged' referred to? Or do you wish to stay in this plane? Should you defeat the Wheel, all debts are paid, and we shall release you. Come.

A translucent shimmer appeared in front of the Balance pillar.

This shall allow you to step into the material plane. 

The shimmer winked out.

Provided you agree to fight for us. You may have five minutes to decide. Spend them wisely. This offer shall not be repeated.

The voice fell silent. All the brethren began weighing their options.

"Hmm...its not the voice of the tentacles." This from Melchiah

"We can hardly trust them." This from Zephon

"It could be a fourth player." Rahab.

"Whose the third?" Turel.

"The pillars. The second is Kain, and the first is the tentacles and Raziel."

"Who do we aid? The pillars, or Kain? And what is the Wheel of Fate?" Zephon again.

"Either the tentacles or some metaphor for the pillars, I presume." Dumah.

"Or the hidden fourth player." Turel

"Assuming there is a fourth player." Melchiah

And so it went on. They argued right up to when the voice cut them off mid-sentence.

Have you decided?

There was a long pause. Then Dumah spoke tentatively

"We will not aid you without some act of faith on your part."

You are in no position to make demands.

"Nor are you, judging by your speech earlier. You need protectors, and nothing sane would choose us without another option."

Zephon raised his eyebrow ridges. He hadn't known Dumah was so shrewd.

Refusal is not an option. We gave you the chance to aid us willingly, but your admittedly justified caution refuted us. Therefore...

The brethren were each propelled towards separate shimmers, which winked out behind them.

-

Moebius stepped out from behind Kain's throne. Zephon had almost detected him, but, as usual, Moebius' machinations were flawless. Although they did have a tendency to collapse at the climax because of the one small factor out of his control. But he no longer served the Wheel of Fate, so perhaps that curse had been lifted. Like the brethren, he had been transported to this plane when Raziel devoured him. Like the brethren, he had fought off the tentacles that came to claim him. And like the brethren, he would return to nosgoth to avenge himself. The shimmer opened. Moebius walked towards it, and paused on the threshold. Turning, he whispered something to the empty room before stepping through.

"You have made a dangerous enemy, Wheel of Fate."

- - - - -

The Elder God mused beneath the abyss. Ironically, the only way it could truly absorb a soul was to sever it from the Wheel of Fate, meaning that, if a strong soul escaped and found its way back to nosgoth, it would no longer be subject to the Wheel. Meaning that the brethren and Moebius now had free will. Which was exactly why the pillars had chosen them to be Guardians. He could use that to his advantage, with care.

Attempting to consume Moebius had been a mistake. A Time Streamer widely acknowledged as the most brilliant mind ever seen in Nosgoth now was free willed, and probably more of a threat than Kain and the brethren combined. He had made a mistake. A mistake. Non –omniscient beings would find it difficult to understand how exhilarating that feeling was.

_At last...a challenge._

However, he knew not to underestimate Kain. Overestimation was a crime too, and Kain would not be a threat until he escaped the Glyph Dome, which would not be for three days. He had more immediate concerns. The pillars had laid their cards on the table. But they had no other options after this hand, and the Elder God always played with a spare deck.

- - - - -

In the heart of Melchahim territory, the urn exploded. Melchiah stood. Not the lumbering creature the had been executed here, but a Melchiah that had not been seen since the fall of the Razelim. The terrified guardian saluted nervously.

"Where are my clan?" Melchiah snarled

"The Skull, master."

"Summon them! And tell them we march...on the pillars."

"At once, Master."

The Guardian relayed the message, then fled with as much of the clan he could convince to follow him.

- - - - -

At the peak of the Cathedral, Zephon's urn exploded. Zephon stood. Not the insect form, but a Zephon not seen since the fall of the Razelim. The terrified guardians saluted nervously.

"Where are my clan?" Zephon snarled.

"They...they no longer exist, master. They were wiped out in the Passing of the Wraith. The only zephonim in existence are in eggs in this room and a handful of mountain crevices."

Abruptly, Zephon morphed into his insect form. An appendage curled around the giant spider as he said "We have work to do." One terrified guardian fled through the crater the Turelim had left and fled to one such redoubt.

- - - - -

In the heart of the abbey, Rahabs urn exploded. Rahab stood. After an experiment, he found that water now burned him. The terrified guardian saluted nervously.

"Summon the clan, and tell them we march...on the pillars!"

"Master, it..it's daylight. We'll fall long before we get there."

"A number of you shall taste my blood, which shall allow you to withstand the sun briefly. The rest shall follow at nightfall. If you ever question me again I shall make your end too painful for words."

The Guardian relayed the message, and then fled as soon as Rahab's back was turned.

- - - - -

Kain remained in his Glyph Dome, helpless as the sounds of battle grew closer. Soon the Razelim would be here. Three Dumahim ran past, took Dumah's urn from his throne, and sprinted through the Warp Gate. Several minutes later, Dumah burst out the Gate, trailed by _two _Dumahim. Ignoring Kain as something beneath notice, Dumah sprinted towards the edge of the city. He'd meet the Razelim before long. But how could Dumah exist, and why couldn't Kain sense him? Was he being possessed by that 'other entity' the Rahabim had spoken of? Frustrated at his immobility, Kain flung a sword at the Dome. It flashed into molten steel. Snarling every expletive he could think of, he obliterated an inoffensive stone that had never hurt a thing.

- - - - - - -

In a tomb somewhere in a mountain, Turel's urn exploded. He sprinted towards his clan territories.

- - - - - - - -

In the thick of the fighting in Ash Village, Raziel suddenly staggered and raised a hand to his forehead. Standing, he screamed "Fall back! We march to the pillars!" to anyone within earshot.

- - - - - -

Beneath the abyss, the Elder God studied the device his Turelim had retrieved. Searching the Wheel for a suitable soul, he located one and freed it.

Eric the weaponsmith looked around the odd chamber he had appeared in. Most people would have been confused and terrified, but the Elder God had quashed those impulses quickly, lest they cause a delay. The voice had said '**Can you replicate this?" **and shown him an odd trumpet shaped device. Always one for a challenge, he examined the thing critically.

"Yes.." he said slowly "...but I'll need time to make them in bulk

"**Time, is one thing we have in plenty."**

_Fic nearly over. Hope you like the chapter. Please review._

_P.S. The bold print is the Elder shouting. _

_P.S.S. This chapter has given away most of my plotlines._


	17. Nosgoth Tenses

**Nosgoth Tenses**

The glyph dome flickered and died. Kain stood, stretching. Either the Hylden had lied, or destroying Resel and the sword he'd flung at it had depleted its power, but the Dome had lasted a mere three days. Time lost. He was almost out of time. Nosgoth...quivered. He could feel that through his hooves. Whatever he meant to do, he'd best do it soon.

What was galling was, he still had no idea what he was going to do. Yes, he had the rudiments of a plan, sparked by his meeting with that sluagh, but he no more had a means of implementing it now than he ever had. He had to assume that the not-Dumah, like the not-Raziel, served the Wheel, and thus that the Wheel's plans were coming to fruition.

He could no longer trust the pillars for guidance. That meant the chronoplast. He had avoided the place thus far because he feared some trap by the Wheel, perhaps being catapulted a thousand years to the future, just before an earthquake that destroyed the Chronoplast behind him. Who could say? But time was short, and choices were few.

He teleported. In Dumah's throne room, Janos Audron's glass urn lay forgotten; a relic of an earlier era long outlasted its usefulness.

- - - - - - -

Kain was correct. The Chronoplast held fierce resistance, pedestals, Razelim mages, animated corpses, demons, Shades, mutants similar to the type he'd met in Dark Eden as a fledgling, even the occasional soul bound to armour. Apparently this was the place the pillar guardians called home when they weren't at the pillars. The benefit to all this combat was he could feel the wraith blade's sentience growing-being used in combat was apparently reviving it.

The first Chronoplast portal showed his battle with the Wheel and the creation of the Soul Reaver.

The second showed him kneeling, in agony, with the wraith blade impaling him.

The third showed him being flung into the Abyss by Raziel, from the abyss room in the Citadel above it.

_This is encouraging._

The portals offered nothing, and the longer he stayed, the more he was attacked. After an unexpected assault from three fire demons, Kain decided remaining was pointless and time consuming.

When he entered the Chronoplast chamber he had just time to wonder why had he bothered coming further than the portals before the first unseen blow took him in the face.

- - - - - - - -

In the demon dimension, five Hylden, the reigning sovereigns, faced each other. The one who drew the short straw, Marath, cursed and stalked off, followed by a few handpicked Elite soldiers. After a final few words with the Regent who would manage his realm until he returned or was presumed dead, he stepped through the gate to the Material Plane. Marshalling the surviving pedestals in Ash Village, they readied themselves for the bloody work ahead of them.

- - - - - - - - -

The Priestess cursed quietly to herself. She had managed to possess another vessel when Raziel had attempted to destroy Kain, but only just. All but a handful of the Razelim had then departed, but that handful was proving more than enough to deal with. Her vessel was the only one remaining on this floor, and if she was killed now, she was doomed. The Razelim didn't leave much to work with after they'd fed on a corpse.

She turned a corner. The Razelim looked up from where it had been feeding. She backed away. The Razelim stood-and fell. The Berserker it had been feeding on was not quite dead yet. The Razelim fell with a sword through it, and the priestess quickly abandoned her current vessel for the more durable Razelim. Whereupon the Berserker cut her in half. Before he died. A vessel could only be possessed once, and the Berserker now didn't have enough blood to function. Frantically flying around in search of another vessel, the Priestess fought the pull of the Spectral Realm as long as she could...to no avail.

_The world shifted..._

The Priestess, now a ball of green energy, screamed. With difficulty, she assumed a vaguely human form-she'd forgotten what her original body looked like, so didn't add features. A human form had a better chance of escaping the sluagh. She opened her eyes.

No sluagh. Moving to the window she screamed exultations at still existing. Then she looked down.

Sluagh were streaming out of the tower in ranks, which extended to the horizon. Direction was difficult to judge in this plane, but she thought they were heading to the pillars.

Her exultation of moments before changed to fear. Only one thing could attract that many sluagh.

Slaughter

- - - - - - - - -

In a tomb in the Hylden city, colonized by his brood after Kain drove them from his empire, something called to Vorador. Janos doubtless would have called it the touch of God. The presence spoke.

**Do you wish to avenge yourself against Moebius and Kain, the orchestrators of your Deaths?**

"I do not enter agreements blindly. State your terms."

**Terms? I have no terms. I wish to see them buried. Obey, and I shall return to you your sire, Janos Audron.**

"And I should trust you for what reason? The Ancients did not benefit unduly from your worship."

**Travel to the pillars. If I am lying you may depart.**

"Very well. But know this. Deity or no, I do not take kindly to betrayal."

**It was for that reason I chose you. Go.**

- - - - - -

Kain was on his back in the Chronoplast chamber. Whenever he tried to stand, an unseen force swept his feet from under him. The force had spent several minutes attempting to force him to kneel, but had finally granted him that small victory. The Wheel spoke for the first time, mockery dripping from each sentence.

"Fool. Why must you continue this foolish rebellion? Kneel, and admit yourself out matched."

"Am I outmatched? This has been your first victory in all the occasions we met. And it may not yet even be that."

"What do you hope to do? Restore the pillars? Impossible for you to survive. It was also one of your original choices, which suggests it is not your 'edge of the coin' metaphor. Purify everyone you meet with the blade you wield? Without consuming their souls? I think not. Believe, Kain, your rebellion is futile. The blade you wield may be Nosgoth's salvation, but it is not yours. Nosgoth may be restored, but you shall not survive to see it. There is no 'edge of the coin'. Why do you think you cannot perceive me?"

And Kain understood. It irked him how lazily the trap had been laid, but he had fallen directly into it. The jaws had not clamped yet, however. The Wheel was being premature.

First he had to escape this room. He withdrew a coin from his haversack, an ancient Coorhagen gold mark. When Kain was twenty five, this coin had won him a small fortune in a gambling hall in Willendorf after landing on its edge six times in a row. It had been the root of his entire 'edge of the coin' metaphor. Flipping the coin, he stood up as though to catch it, and teleported before the Wheel could catch on and attack again. Just as he teleported, a summons from the pillars hit him like a hammer, and he changed his destination. As he materialized at the pillars, the coin hit the floor. It teetered on its edge-and fell over. The laughter of the Wheel of Fate echoed long and loud in the empty room.


	18. Defending the pillars

_The first scene is too fast paced, I think._

**Battle**

With the pillars' power enabling his teleportation spell, Kain passed through the Wards as though they didn't exist, appearing in the central chamber of the sanctuary. He heard the Dimension Guardian shout "Stall him!" before the Conflict Guardian charged. It was no real contest-his opponent was lending too much of his power to whatever they were doing behind him. Abruptly, it became even less of a contest as all nine Guardians suddenly fainted. A massive, translucent demon was standing in the centre of the circle. It lunged for Kain, and he counterattacked. The demon was fast, fast beyond belief, and whatever attacks he launched bounced off apparent empty air a foot in front of it. Including physical attacks. The Guardians had put some effort into its summons, apparently. Kain was forced to leap about the room, purifying the unconscious Guardians with his blade, but pulling it away before it could devour their souls. A few minutes after he finished, he was swatted out of midair . The States Guardian had regained consciousness and ordered two grotesquely deformed Turelim, previously unnoticed as they were hidden behind the throne, to attack. The demon tried to lunge, but it was sucked through a portal before it could. Kain leapt to his feet and lunged at the Turelim-and stopped as his blade became mired in apparent nothingness inches from the skull of the first. Glancing around, he saw the Mind Guardian on her feet.

"Surprised?" asked Turel's voice from her throat.

- - - - - - -

The Wheel of Fate thrust a tentacle at the pillars. It was obliterated as a projectile formed from all nine struck. He would not catch them off guard again. He feinted with another tentacle, but drew it back, and the projectile aimed for it hit instead the wall behind, destroying what was left of the murals. The pillars then launched a desperate offensive, knowing they could not afford to play cat and mouse any longer. The Wheel retreated behind its barriers. He would let them waste their strength.

- - - - - -

The pillars glowed. A gravelly voice spoke, nine voices in unison, partly stony, partly similar to Janos' accent.

I name you...

Kain, Guardian of Balance.

Turel, Guardian of Mind.

Dumah, Guardian of Conflict

Rahab, Guardian of Nature

Zephon, Guardian of Energy

Melchiah, Guardian of Death

Moebius, Guardian of Time-

"Moebius!" screamed every vampire in the room, dropping into fighting stances and drawing weapons.

"Yes. Moebius. And before you lynch me, I suggest you consider the alternative."

"Which is?" Kain had every intention of cutting him down where he stood, but he did not intend to make a mistake now.

"The destruction of Nosgoth via the Wheel of Fate? If there was an alternative, do you think the pillars would have chosen me? They remember what I did to them. They choose me because they need me."

Kain decided to postpone Moebius' death until after the defeat of the Wheel of Fate. Either he was telling the truth, or the pillars were so criminally foolish they deserved destruction.

Ma...Ma...Ma...Mar...

Kain frowned. The glowing energy was not infusing the guardian, but something standing behind the pillar. The light was flickering, as though reluctant to enter. He walked around. A Hylden delivered an evil grin at him just as the pillar, finding no other possible candidate, relented and allowed its essence to infuse it.

Marath, Guardian of Dimension.

The voice ceased. The States pillar stood silent. The Hylden, feeling an explanation necessary, began to speak.

"Precision possession, my boys. I possessed the Dimension Guardian as Kain impaled it. His weapon purifies the soul, not the body, hence I was purified instead of my vessel's soul. She's not harmed; do not fear, unless you count the usurping of her position."

Kain remained silent. He couldn't speak for pure rage. First Moebius, now this Hylden creature! While he was recovering, a panicked Dumahim fledgling burst into the room.

"I hope you have that surprise you promised prepared because the armies are close now. They will be storming the sanctuary in a few minutes."

"Leave us." Moebius snapped.

The Dumahim turned to obey, then whirled back. Eyes widening in recognition, although how he could recognize a man four housand years dead was beyond Kain,he charged Moebius, who calmly drew his belt knife and delivered it to the Dumahim's left eye with an underarm cast. Moebius walked up, picked up the Dumahim's dropped sword, and impaled it on it. He drew out the blade, asked the stunned Dumahim if he was going to behave, and then kicked him out the doors. He then walked back to the Time pillar and leaned against it as though nothing had happened.

Glancing around, Kain telekinetically picked up the former States, Balance, and Dimension Guardians and brought them to him.

"What do you know of these armies? Speak quickly!"

"The clans are marching on the pillars. Renegade factions from each clan stand outside, ready to defend them. An army of wraiths materialized in the abyss fortress and have not attacked yet only because they wait for the others to mobilize. We were preparing that demon to help defend, until you returned it to its home." The Dimension guardian's voice was calm, controlled. Remarkably so, under the circumstances. All three were. The Balance Guardian even looked...eager, enjoying the prospect of watching the battle.

Dismissing them, Kain glanced around again. His former 'sons' were not over the shock of rebirth yet. Those who'd been thrust into female bodies were busily modifying them, and Turel, who'd been unfortunate enough to have been thrust into a body wearing a sequined gold dress, was busily tearing it into something more masculine. He couldn't expect help from them, not yet. Moebius or the Hylden? Both would likely betray him at the first chance they found. If he was going to do something about the armies, it would be alone. And then the decision was taken from him.

Vorador teleported into the room. He began to sprint towards Kain, but Moebius tripped him with his staff. The false Brethren, minus Raziel, burst into the room. No followers came with them-apparently they'd cut a private swathe through the defenders ranks. Their counterparts intercepted. The Entity Kain had first known as the Unspoken and then as the Sarafan Lord, now a soul devouring wraith, advanced on Kain. Marath intercepted. Seeing something out of the corner of his eye, he leapt aside just as Raziel came down in the space where he had been. They squared off. All around the room, taunts were exchanged, weapons drawn. Duels begun.

- - - - - -

Moebius grinned. Finally, he had a good ash quarterstaff in his hand, not the decorative creation he'd been forced to carry around most of his life. Vorador wasn't taking him seriously, his swordpoint almost touching the floor. Perfect.

"How I have longed for this..." When vampires long to destroy you, you know you're doing something right. It was a rule he'd lived by. It meant they hadn't managed it yet. Moebius allowed a quizzical expression to rise.

"Oh? You long for my revival and your immediate humiliation?"

"Bravado will not save you now. You no longer possess your precious staff."

"I was slaying ancients older than you long before I received that trinket. And now, I have no more need of you. This time, you shall not be revived. How delighted were you at your sire's revival, ignorant that it, through my design, would result in even greater anguish for him than mere death." That was no design of his, but Vorador did not know that, and he lunged. Moebius delivered a stunning crack to the side of his head with the iron shod heel of his quarterstaff, with a follow up stroke to the wrist. Vorador recovered almost immediately, where most other vampires would be writhing on the ground, and Moebius barely blocked the counter slash. His own counter was dodged, and he leapt several feet back instead of becoming over extended. They faced each other. Vorador was no longer grinning. He'd learned respect. Moebius knew he'd bring Dark Gifts into play during the next exchange. Therein lay the challenge.

- - - - - - - - -

Marath faced Hal'ak'gik, who looked disgusted.

"Why must you side with our enemy, Marath?"

"Because he has a better chance of destroying the Wheel than you ever did."

"The Wheel is no evil creature. He came to me upon my destruction, and was more benevolent than any entity I know. The war was a mistake, Marath, a misinterpretation of his followers. They then abandoned him because he had not the power to lift the curse, and now he is alone, forced to manipulate and force his servants to obey in a hostile land. Cease this futile rebellion, and he shall exalt our race above the unfaithful vampires. We shall rule Nosgoth alone. He cares not for the dealings of his subjects, provided they _are_ subjects and agree to feed him."

For an instant, Marath hesitated. Hal'ak'gik had ever been an eloquent speaker. But then he recognized them for the lies they were, and attacked. His adversary vanished under his onslaught, but then re-appeared behind him.

"Very well. I gave you a chance, but since you deny me-Die!"

- - - - - - - -

Defeated, Raziel was on his knees. He had been beating Kain at will for some time, but he had no defense against Inundate, and had soon fallen despite his best efforts. Kain glanced around, but did not ignore Raziel even for that instant. Two skeletons were holding the false Melchiah down while the real one attacked him. The Zephons were a blur. Rahab had just succeeded in miring his counterpart in plants. The Dumahs were still trading blows. Turel appeared to be winning a telekinetic struggle, if only slightly. The two Hylden were evenly matched. Moebius was the better fighter, but a staff was not an impaling weapon, so he couldn't destroy Vorador, and he was tiring.

All this assessment took only an instant, but that was enough. Raziel lunged forward, grabbed the false Melchiah, and teleported. The real Melchiah happened to be touching the false one, and was teleported too. Taking advantage of the shock, the false Zephon. fled the room. Kain was after him instantly, like a cat after a bird.

_Zephon and Rahab pretty much got stuck with the leftover pillars. I didn't do the brethren exchanging taunts because there's only so many I can think of. Five chapters, maybe six, still to come._


	19. The Chase

**Chase**

But Zephon was a vampire, not a bird. He couldn't fly and he certainly couldn't run through several angry armies on his ownthe army that supported him on his entry now could sense the real Zephon, and would tear him to pieces even more readily than the other armies. Kain caught him attempting to climb the walls in the bridge room. Deciding that the concept of honour would at this stage be counterproductive, he impaled Zephon in the back with the wraith blade. He allowed it just enough time to finish devouring, and kept running. He could sense Melchiah on the abyss, and he was fairly certain that where Melchiah was, the not-Melchiah would also be.

Of course, it was undoubtedly a trap-but what of that? Not entering was also a trap, and a worse one. He mounted the steps to the Castle on the abyss without the slightest hesitation, but what he'd seen in the Chronoplast portals was uppermost in his mind.

- - - - - - -

The Wheel of Fate, if it had a face, would be grinning. Kain had discovered his crude trap earlier than it had expected, and now had every chance of escaping and achieving victory. But that no longer mattered. The pillars would fall to him soon.

Admittedly, he'd been surprised when his outer barrier had shattered upon the third wave of projectiles from the pillars. Surprised, but not unduly worried. His second barrier was under no strain whatsoever as yet. What was irritating was that he could clearly perceive the way to undo the pillar's own protective barriers. If they were destroyed, the backlash could well destroy the pillars. But his barrier prevented his assault as well as shielding him from outside assault. And dropping the barrier would be disastrous.

Suddenly, the barrage of projectiles ceased. Were the pillars harboring their energy, or luring him into a trap? He would not drop his barrier, but now he could see a way to attack safely. His barrier had not prevented physical assault, but it had not occurred to the pillars to use physical weapons. One of his tentacles picked up a stone, and flung it almost lazily towards the pillars. It struck the weak point in the pillar's shields, and they shattered-revealing a far more powerful shield beneath, which was nevertheless cracked by the backlash. The pillars launched another wave of projectiles, far more powerful than anything they'd used so far, which dissipated harmlessly on the Wheel's barrier. The Wheel could sense them frantically weaving another shield beneath the cracked now outermost one. They had not expected him to maintain his barrier. Another wave of attack hit the barrier. Some were now physical, but that no longer mattered. The Wheel had modified its barriers as soon as the stone was on its way. Now the true battle began. Confident the barriers would hold, and he would be well forewarned if they did not, the Wheel turned its attention to Kain. Perhaps something could be salvaged from the situation above ground.

- - - - - - - - -

The pillars had no emotions, but if they had, they would be furious. The Wheel had taken the bait, but had escaped before the jaws closed. It was wary beyond belief, and their counter would take months to break its barrier. And there was another beneath that. Weaving their barrier, with a ward above that so that they would know if –when- the outer barrier shattered, they turned their attention above ground. If they won there, perhaps they could scrounge some extra time to think of a course of action below.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Kain sprinted down the corridor, barely three feet ahead of a tsunami stretching from floor to ceiling. The building was far bigger and more complex than it had been on his previous visit. While the pedestals were no stronger, there were far more of them, and they cared nothing for water or air. Submerged, they could do him more than a little damage, if they knocked him into water with their telekinetic blasts.

The corridor branched in two ahead. Kain took the left branch, praying it was not a dead end. It was not. The corridor ended in a door, which, when opened proved to lead into the abyss room. Several wheeled pedestals charged him, but were washed away by the water behind him as Kain leapt for the skylight in the roof of the room.

_Was that window there the last time I was here? I don't remember it._

Crashing through the skylight, Kain emerged in a room identical to the ones he'd destroyed on his previous visit, except on a larger scale. He judged this room alone to be the width of the abyss itself. Several thousand pedestals and three of the ones with the Wheels carved into them, fired at him. Lacking the time to deal with them, he ran up the stairs to the rafters and leapt through the skylight. Finding himself in an identical room, he repeated the action. This became the pattern of his ascent. Oh, occasionally there was a glyph shield over the skylight and he had to find another way up, but this never delayed him for long. Abyss water spurted from every crack in the stones it could find, and Kain's skin sported some horrible burns. He didn't try to heal them, knowing he'd need all his excess blood for what undoubtedly awaited him at the spire of the building.

Melchiah was close now. He must be almost at the top. A glyph shield barred his way, and he had to find another route, losing now precious time as the water level rose. He ran down another corridor, wary of the tsunami's that tended to materialize when he was in cramped quarters. Just before he reached the end, the door he had intended entering collapsed, releasing a wall of water. Kain turned, and found a similar wave advancing from the end he'd just come from. He leapt-

The water crashed by. Spray stung his body, but he could endure that for a time. However, the water flowing by showed no sign of abating, was in fact rising, unlike the other waves he'd been forced to dodge during his ascent. Kain, clinging to the ceiling like an absurd Zephonim, began to worry. The water continued to rise. After a few minutes, he heard the Wheel's voice for the first time since the Chronoplast. It spoke no words, merely delivering that mocking, almost approving chuckle it bequeathed to all who sought to defy it.

The water rose another inch, flowing by as steadily as ever. Kain lost patience. What he had to do would be painful, but no more painful than other things he'd endured over the millennia. He released his grip on the ceiling, and dropped beneath the water.

It was agonizing, so agonizing the very word was too weak to apply, but the water took long enough to eat through his skin that he could get through the door and leap for the rafters in the room ahead. He managed it, somehow, and found himself in a room, where the two Melchiahs still contested, impossible to distinguish to the eye. Kain didn't hesitate to impale the one he could not sense, telekinetically salvaging as much of its blood as he could before it exploded, almost enough to repair his skin. He spent valuable seconds ensuring he looked as imposing as possible, before commanding the other Melchiah to depart with such authority that he teleported immediately, without pausing to think. As soon as Melchiah left, the wraith blade turned on Kain, fully sentient again, but as insane as it had ever been, attempting to devour him.

For no apparent reason, a jet of water hit the stone Kain was standing on, propelling him up through the skylight to the room above, barely missing the room below's rafters. The stone shattered in midair, propelling Kain just to one side of the depression in the middle of the floor, with a now broken glass base. Kain's fall was totally boneless, as he was devoting his energy to not being devoured. Raziel looked down interestedly from the room's rafters. With a huge effort, Kain raised his head.

Raziel leapt down, landing beside Kain, still curious. Kain attempted to draw a sword. Raziel helpfully took it out of its sheath and placed it in his claw. On the third attempt, Kain levered himself to his knees. Amused, Raziel spoke for the first time.

"Yes, Kain. Kneel before me, as befits your rank."

Pure rage got Kain to his feet. He wavered, but stayed there, and his voice remained strong.

"As befits my rank? Child, you did not even merit the rank the corpse you inhabit received from me. In truth, you did not exist then in the vessel you have stolen now. Who are you, fledgling? In truth? You are not Raziel, that I know. In the sanctuary, your allies were greeted by the souls they had usurped. And lost. You are a tool, and the Wheel shall discard you if you do not break before you outlast your usefulness."

"Indeed? And where was the displaced version of me, when I assaulted the pillars in the name of the Wheel? No, Kain, I am the Raziel, and always have been. Do not delude yourself with false hope."

Which completely bypassed the thrust of Kain's speech. But that no longer mattered. Raziel had been diverted long enough. The wraith blade had eased its assault, and Kain was able to stand unaided. He brought the sword up. Raziel stepped back, and flew up, to apparently stand on air several feet above.

"I bested you in the sanctuary, and I will do it here."

"I think not. You bested me in the sanctuary, at the seat of your power. This is the seat of _my _power, and here, I am a God!"

Raziel swooped. Kain was struck by an invisible force and was catapulted across the room into a wall with bone-crushing impact. Kain raised his head just long enough to catch Raziel's follow up. Leaping to his feet, He was swatted again, but this time he was ready for it, taking the impact with the ground on his shoulder and rolling upright long enough to catch Raziel by the ankle mid-swoop and slam him into the floor. Guessing another attack on the way, he leapt blindly, and something passed beneath him. Then another attack slammed him into the floor. Rising to his knees, he was readying himself for another swoop when the wraith blade struck again. Unprepared, there was nothing he could do as it impaled his throat. He screamed-

-And two tentacles shimmered into existence. The wraith blade became instantly compliant, and he used it to sever them easily. Turning, he saw Raziel staring in open shock. Then with a suddenness that was unbelievable, Raziel darted over to Kain, picked him up, and flung him through the hole in the floor, opening his wings and diving after.

They fell hundreds of feet, snapping rafters like twigs in their wake, falling through room after room. Nothing Kain could do could slow that fall-not, at least, until he glanced over his shoulder, and terror galvanized him. His claws found a grip on the edges of one of the holes, and although his grip wavered when Raziel hit him, it didn't fail. Assuming bat form, he allowed Raziel to fall through, then re-formed, caught Raziel by the wrist and teleported back to Sanctuary.


	20. The Deep Breath

**The Deep Breath...**

When he arrived back at Sanctuary, Kain didn't give Raziel the smallest chance to think. He took one step back to gain room, then impaled Raziel on the wraith blade before he could turn. Unlike the others, Raziel didn't explode or show noticeable signs of being purified. Instead, the wraith blade wound around him like a snake, wrenching free of Kain painfully, before vanishing into his forehead. Raziel spasmed for a fraction of a second before becoming absolutely rigid, as though Rigor Mortis had set in. While his body never twitched all in the chamber heard the Whispered words.

KillmoebiusKainKillWheel of FateDrinktheirsoulssosweettodevourtheirsoulsshriektheirscreamsImustslaythemall

Raziel began floating, horizontally perhaps three feet off the ground. Kain, who was closest, was flung against the nearest wall as Raziel's head hit him in the chest with bone crushing force. Apparently, Raziel had tried to impale him with his head, and had broken his neck in the process. Raziel, still rigid and motionless, began to weep. The water cut furrows down his face as the Whispered lecture continued.

KainstandsKainstandsKainstandsimpossiblenothingcanstandagainstme.Mynewshellisfragileithurtsithurts.AmItoberobbedofsoulsforevermore?

The voice ceased forming words, but continued Whispering, alternating between screams and sobbing. The wraith blade was as insane as ever, it seemed.

Turel strolled up behind Raziel and seized his head in both hands. Raziel writhed like a cornered rat, but he couldn't get loose. After several minutes, Raziel suddenly slumped and hit the ground. Turel released him and stepped back.

Perhaps a few minutes later, Raziel sat up, putting one hand to his head. His five brothers charged and began beating him savagely. Kain didn't interfere. He didn't know if he would be able to stop them if they disobeyed a command, and he didn't want them to know that. After they stopped, Raziel lay there, slowly healing, the only part of him moving his left arm, which was obsessively stroking his newfound lower jaw. Finally, he staggered to his feet. Only then did Kain glance around to see how the others had fared. Moebius was clearly exhausted, using his staff for support and bleeding heavily from a scalp wound, but Vorador was nowhere to be seen. Marath was a walking mass of wounds, but The Sarafan Lord was likewise absent. The not-Dumah's charred corpse was there, but of the not-Rahab and not-Turel nothing could be seen.

Raziel had risen to his feet, still stroking his jaw and trying to speak. His eyes focused –and he saw Moebius and lunged. Kain telekinetically knocked him aside-later perhaps, he would allow Moebius to die, but not yet. If the other brethren could stay their desire to slay Raziel immediately, Raziel could wait until the Wheel fell.

Snarling, Raziel finally discovered how to use his new jaw and spoke.

"Moebius, I do not know how you convinced Kain not to kill you where you stand, but know that I do not forget so easily. If you betray-"

"If I betray you, you will launch upon a genocidal quest for my blood, spanning centuries and destroying everything in your path, until you have the perfect chance to slay me, whereupon you will change your mind."

There was the careful silence of several people trying not to laugh out loud, Kain included. Raziel lunged again, and this time Turel was the one who knocked him aside.

_Well, he's sane. And Moebius will probably find a way to convince him to keep him alive._

Suddenly, Kain realized that that remark had been perfectly calculated. Moebius had irritated an entity who already was howling for his blood, and gained five other...not allies, that was far too strong a term, but the other brethren were now more inclined to keep him alive, if only to enrage Raziel. And there was nothing Kain could do about it.

Moebius was addressing him.

"I assume you have a plan? Or should I throw myself upon the sparse mercies of the Wheel?"

"I think not."

Kain crossed to his throne and knelt before it, pressing his claws into certain cracks. A piece of apparently solid stone swung outwards, and the contents of the compartment came into view. Resting upon the cushion he'd knitted with his own claws so long ago, were the shards of the Reaver he'd smashed over Raziel, thus freeing the spirit inside. Taking them up, he set the cushion down on the seat of his throne almost reverently, and assembled the shards into the blade he knew so well. Concentrating, he sent his mind down into the blade, ferreting out every hairline crack, before extending whisper-thin strands of Immolate, instead of the uncontrolled burst he normally used. This was exceedingly painful, but it worked, and before long the blade was whole, better than any blacksmith could have repaired it. Kain looked up, breathing hard, and enflamed a nearby tapestry to relieve the pain.

He then turned to Marath.

"Can you travel to the wraith realm?"

Marath looked at him as though he had asked what colour was the sky.

"Of course."

"Can you bring one of its denizens here?"

"What denizen? A vampire wraith?"

"No!"

"An archon?"

"No..."

_What did that creature call itself..._

"A...sluagh?"

"Yes, but not for very long."

"Go."

"As you wish."

Marath vanished. He re-appeared almost instantly with a huge creature, far larger than the one Kain had seen, but undoubtedly of the same type. The effort had drained Marath hugely, and he collapsed, but Kain had already impaled the creature. It writhed and flailed, but Kain avoided its attacks easily enough. After several seconds its struggles weakened and it began to flicker. After several more seconds it slid into the blade with an earsplitting scream. The blade glowed green. Behind him, he heard Moebius whisper "Yes..."

Marath raised himself to his elbows, looking around groggily. The former-Dimension Guardian knelt next to him and asked "What happened?"

"This room was packed wall to wall with sluagh. Hundreds of them. When they saw me, one of them absorbed all the others. _All _of them. He almost managed to absorb me as well, and I only survived by sending him here."

Melchiah examined the blade. "If that isn't powerful enough to absorb the Wheel's soul, nothing else we can do will be."

Suddenly the States pillar began to glow.

I name you...Raziel, Guardian of States.

The other eight began to glow as Raziel was infused with the pillar. All nine now spoke.

The Circle is restored. Now go, rid the land of the Wheel.

This time it was Kain who said "Yes..."

- - - - - - - - -

The Wheel was decidedly irritated. Not enraged, because nothing could disconcert it overmuch, but definitely irritated. The Circle had been restored, and the pillars would now slowly heal. The Wheel could still win, but only after a millennia long stalemate. And now it was in mortal peril. And enjoying every minute of it. Uncertainty was unbelievably exhilarating.

- - - - - - - - - -

Ragl, the only surviving sluagh not sealed in the wraith blade, of tens of thousands, slowly released his grip on a pebble, which, in the Spectral realm, was as good an anchor as a hundred tonnes of lead.


	21. Before The Plunge

_My favorite chapter. Sorry it's late, I wanted to make sure the dialogue was as good as I could write. Please review._

**...before the Plunge**

In the room known to some as The Elder God Chamber, the Wheel of Fate was furiously trying to conceive some scheme to salvage the ruins of his machinations. True, the pillar guardians would not live forever, yet it was irritating to have centuries of careful planning ground to dust upon the impulse of a few...malcontents. What could be done?

The floor of the chamber was littered with fragments of his wraiths. When a wraith was struck by a sound projectile, the sound reverberated through the creature until it was forced to return to the spectral realm. However, sound exists also in the spectral plane and the wraith would be paralyzed and drawn back to the Elder God chamber. By this stage, the sound would have entered the wraith itself, and shattered tooth and bone, not slaying them, but subjecting them to an eternity of pure pain. Pleasant as the screaming was, it did make it difficult to think, and the Wheel reluctantly re-assimilated its servants to the Wheel. And almost instantly saw a solution.

- - - - - - -

Kain stood on the brink of the abyss, attempting to derive answers from its depths. He had the weapon to destroy the wheel, but he had yet to conceive how he was to find its lair. Of the places he knew, one had long been abandoned, and the other lay beneath him and was inaccessible. The best he could hope for was that the debris of the building that once stood upon the abyss had caused it some minor inconvenience as it fell.

The pillar guardians were arrayed behind him in similar moods. Moebius in particular was certain the Wheel had some agonizing vengeance lying in wait for him. He might even be right.

The battle had soon turned to rout. When the brethren had been revived, their clans had known instantly which was genuine, and had turned on the battalion of wraiths. The wraiths had fought hard, slaying over three times their number in vampires, some of whom returned later as wraiths. Sound projectiles had flown in both directions, but eventually most of the wraiths had been destroyed by the weapons. The more intelligent of the army had managed to flee to the spectral realm, and occasionally pocket re-emerged and had to be hunted down. But the Wheel had made no move personally.

"All that effort...to no avail." That was Moebius. He had grown more and more despondent as time passed.

"Oh? The famed serpent, tangled in his own web?" That was the former Balance guardian, who had taken great pleasure in taunting the man who'd served the Wheel. Moebius turned amused eyes on the man, recovering some of his poise.

"Not an avid nature study, then?"

"What?"

"I have yet to encounter a serpent that spun a web. Kain?"

"Yes?"

"May I submit a suggestion for a new law in your empire?"

Instantly wary, Kain replied "If you wish. I most likely will not grant it, but deliver your suggestion in any case."

"Similes or metaphors comparing me to serpents, snakes, or puppeteers to result in immediate execution?"

Kain was highly amused. "I believe I may be able to accommodate you in that. Only on repeated offences, however."

"As you wish." The former Balance guardian looked stunned, but everyone else within earshot was amused. Moebius wore genuine delight.

The day passed. One by one, the guardians drifted away, until only Kain remained standing on the abyss, still attempting contrive a useful action. He heard a soft footfall behind him, and turned. The magical projectile skimmed past his left shoulder. Springing forward, he grabbed the former Balance Guardian by the throat, who kicked and spat at him, screaming, "Heretic! You _dare _to defy the Wheel? He will make your end ten times as agonizing as you now make mine, and I shall be exalted after you slay me."

"You believe so strongly in your Master, then?"

"Of course."

"Then go to him." The Balance guardian's last despairing scream was swallowed by the roar of the abyss, as was Kain's shouted "And tell him Kain awaits!"

"That will not be necessary, Lord Kain."

Kain dropped into a fighting crouch as the voice of the Wheel reached him.

"Lord? You are somewhat more respectful than when we met previously."

"Then, you had done nothing to earn my respect. Indeed, most of what you have now achieved was devised by either the pillars or Moebius. But that drama with the blade, that was brilliant. So now, you have a weapon capable of dealing me a mortal blow, yet nowhere to strike. I will not present you with a target. Cease this futile rebellion, Kain. Submit to me, and rule Nosgoth with my blessing."

"And why should I trust you?"

"I trust you. Observe."

A tentacle materialized next to Kain.

"If you wish, you may now strike me down, thus destroying Nosgoth. The land does not function without the Wheel. If you do not strike, you may rule Nosgoth unhindered barring the occasional sacrifice to me."

Kain lunged. The tentacle dodged, and vanished.

"So be it. Do not submit. Unlike me, you are not eternal. Eventually, I shall be free of you."

The Wheel now sounded almost regretful. "You would have been an excellent servant. You detected my trap quicker than I expected, and were able to slay the false brethren and reclaim the fragments of your soul they took from you, thus re-purifying yourself and allowing yourself to perceive me truly. I severed you from the Wheel for that reason. Omniscience repels excitement. You have done well, almost emerging as a worthy opponent. Thus I will give you a final chance. Submit to me., or face an existence where, at the end, you will understand the futility of your existence and be tormented."

"Hahaha...The Great Wheel of Fate, reduced to haggling over scraps. Perhaps _you_ should kneel to _me._ You can give me nothing."

"Oh no? Perhaps you merely became obscenely drunk in that tavern in Ziegsturl and this entire scenario is a fantasy."

Kain froze. Memories rose unbidden.

_Raziel advanced, snarling. _

"_This act of genocide is unconscionable!"_

"_Conscience? You dare to speak to me of conscience! Your lifespan is a flicker compared to the mass of doubt and regret that I have borne since Mortanius first turned me from the light! To know that the fate of the world rests upon my every deed! Can you even begin to conceive what you would do in my position!?"_

"_I would choose integrity, Kain."_

Kain had not been lying. Most of his speeches to Raziel had been calculated to convince him do one thing or another, but that fragment was pure truth. Nosgoth was a heavy burden on one's shoulders.

"You know it is within my power," the Wheel enticed, "for me, Fate is to be manipulated, not obeyed. Perhaps this is the true edge of your proverbial coin. Never to be forced by Ariel's haunted spectre to make that critical decision at the pillars. Never having to consign Raziel the abyss, never having to stand idly by as he slew your sons. Never manipulated by Moebius into your genocide. Never having to slay your faithful servant Magnus. Or Indeed, Umah. That plague need not come to Coorhagen, and you may live contentedly as a human without ever knowing what might have occurred. All this I will grant you...Think on it."

"What...what must I do to achieve this?"

"Leap. Show your faith in Fate, and come to me. Leap. Find the edge of your coin."

Kain removed the coin from his pocket. He'd retrieved it from the Chronoplast chamber with some difficulty. A gold coin. Two sides, heads or tails...and an edge. The coin arced out over the abyss, spinning end over end. Kain leaned out to catch it.

- - - - - - - -

The gargoyle flew on. It had been looking for the book thief for days now, and had detected nothing. It made another circuit, mindlessly searching...Yes. There. A scent. The book's presence sang to it, called to it. It swooped.

- - - - - - - - - -

Kain didn't detect the gargoyle until it was inches away. Far too late. The thing ripped the haversack containing the book from his back. The impact knocked him out over the abyss, but even then he might have saved himself, if Fate hadn't chosen that precise instant for an earthquake to shake the abyss. Kain fell. But he had time to draw the Reaver before the abyss swallowed him.

- - - - - - - - - -

Pain. Ah, such pain. His brief water torture when hunting Raziel was an insect bite to a sword thrust. Despite his instincts crying out for it, Kain kept his jaw clenched. His skin could withstand the abyss for a time. His throat could not.

Yet even the pain of the abyss could not be compared to the pain of the distortion. Some ripples were trying to force him to the surface, others tried to force him to sink. It was like being clamped in a gradually tightening vice in a pool of acid. The abyss burned through his clamped eyelids and his eyes burned away. His skin was almost completely gone.

Kain's mind, immensely powerful and disciplined though it was, could not withstand this kind of pressure. It fled its fragile shell. The Wheel had the vessel to itself, but as Kain reached the abyss floor, not even the Wheel of Fate could prevent Kain's empty body from instinctively raising the sword as he fell threw the blue swirling cone in the centre of the room. Kain's ruined ears heard an agonized scream, but it didn't register. He was empty.

- - - - - - -

The pillar guardians came running to the abyss as the scream reached their ears, in time to see a massive waterspout emerging from the heart of the abyss. When it dissipated, a figure could be seen falling, having been borne upwards by the waterspout. Turel telekinetically caught the shell that had been Kain and put his hand on its forehead. Several seconds later he flinched as though struck.

Sounding stricken, he forced out two words.

"He's...gone"

_The fics not over yet. What do you think? Please, PLEASE review_


	22. Chapter 22

Turel looked over the edge of the abyss, confused by the sudden silence that had settled across the land like a shroud. The proverbial 'endlessly swirling waters of the abyss' were still. What this meant remained to be seen.

Returning to Kain, he found that he hadn't moved, although his body was healing nicely due to some blood donations extracted from an unfortunate passer-by. Both fists were tightly clenched. One held the Soul Reaver, now flashing an eye watering pattern of flickering blue and green. The other, when Turel was finally able to open it, held a gold coin.

- - - - - - - -

In the former Sanctuary of the Clans, Kain had been placed on his throne, while the other guardians discussed events. It was clear what had happened. What they should do now remained obscure. Turel had just finished an extended inspection of Kain's shell, and now delivered his opinions.

"As best as I can tell, the pain of abyss immersion overwhelmed Kain, and he fled his shell. The Wheel, sensing this, erected barriers around it so he could not return. I could break those barriers, given time, but I could not ensure that what re-inhabited his vessel would be him, and not...something else."

None of them were clear on what to do. Seeing this, Marath excused himself, and departed to midwife the Hylden's return to Nosgoth. The debate continued.

Finally, tiring of this meaningless exercise, Dumah brought up the subject all of them had avoided thus far.

"What are we to do about the blade?"

For some reason, all eyes turned to Moebius, who shrugged noncommittally and said "Melchiah?"

Melchiah studied the blade, which was positioned in the exact centre of the chamber. Several minutes later, he stood. Looking deep into several expectant faces, he sighed.

"I do not know. The essences of the Sluagh and the Wheel are still fighting. The conflict could last for millennia or end in a moment. If one gains control, it could well break free of the blade. The blue flickers are The Wheel, the Green the Sluagh. We should gain ample warning if one side gains a lasting victory, but should is not an absolute. Almost anything can happen when souls of this magnitude collide."

"How reassuring."

"I can only tell of what I see, Turel. Divining the future is Moebius' area of expertise."

"True. Moebius, do you have anything to add?"

"No. The time stream has been knocked askew by the disappearance of the Wheel. Until it settles, I am blind."

On that somber note the discussion ended. They set a watch on the Reaver and trod their separate paths, occasionally returning to keep Kain's vessel alive. The Hylden completed their transition, bringing with them many kinds of intriguing domesticated demons, from catlike creatures used in a similar way as horses to bizarre slug creatures that fed on glyph energy. It wasn't until over three weeks later that the alarm flared, and all eight Guardians had teleported to the pillars before it had faded.

- - - -

Sparing only one glance for Kain to see if he had yet regained his vessel, Rahab stared at the blade with the rest. It was almost fully green now, with only a hint of blue flickering around the base of the hilt. Around the blade, the stone had melted, and it was floating in a small pool of molten rock. Concentrating, Raziel was able to restore this to its original state, but only just. The Wheel had fought gamely, as ever, but the Sluagh had had marginally more time to adapt to its new surroundings. After another thirty seconds, the blade flared fully green and faded into non-existence. In its place shimmered an indescribable presence. Vampires are sensitive to power, and Rahab knew this ...being was infinitely more dangerous than the Wheel had ever been. The presence waited almost tentatively until its new surroundings made sense. Sensing how little threat they were, the presence formed into a two hundred foot tall Sluagh and attacked.

Rahab dodged aside as a massive claw flashed through where he would have been standing. He mired it in strangling plants, but the sluagh pulled free easily. They were almost no threat to it, and it knew it.

- - - -

It was several hours later and little had changed. It had soon become clear that most of them could do little to harm it. Oh, Moebius could slow it, Turel's illusions could confuse it and Rahab's plants could confine it -briefly- but only Melchiah and Dumah could actually harm it. Melchiah ripped souls out of its flesh and thrust them into corpses, and Dumah summoned shades from its flesh, which both acted as fodder and devoured separate souls of their own volition. But there were tens of thousands-perhaps millions- of souls in the Wheel of Fate, and after several hours they'd hardly done more than scratch the surface. It would take weeks to destroy it. And the others could do little but ensure Dumah and Melchiah had enough blood and attempt to distract the creature as best they could.

Suddenly the thing staggered as Marath did something complicated, almost managing to suck the thing through a dimensional portal of some kind, but it caught the edges and staggered back just in time. Overcompensating, the thing fell to its knees.

"Don't!" somebody shouted distantly, "If it's banished, the souls go also!"

Uncaring, Rahab was staring at the creature. Its aura was turning blue. Slowly, it morphed into something with tentacles and hundreds of eyes. The Wheel of Fate laughed.

"Fools. You have delivered the Wheel into the hands of a Sluagh. You will find its rule far less kind than my own. I absolve myself of Nosgoth, and leave you to suffer your Fate." There was unmistakable strain in the voice, but also weary resigned contempt. A massive blue soul broke away from the form and fled through the portal Marath had constructed, still laughing. The presence in the centre of the room instantly reformed into the Sluagh, but it was almost twenty feet smaller than it had been. Its manner became more urgent, and it began for the first time conjuring silver projectiles. When they struck something, it instantly ceased to exist. It did not dissolve or vanish, it was merely there/not there. The walls of the chamber, somehow still upright in spite of the immense battering they had received, suddenly had sizeable pieces of them missing, and collapsed. The Sluagh strode clear of the wreckage, under which the Guardians that hadn't managed to teleport clear were buried, and caught sight of Kain's shell, still seated on his throne and remarkably undamaged. It paused, and appeared to grin.

- - - - - - -

Kain, who had been battering on the barriers surrounding his mind for over three weeks, broke through them just before the projectile struck

- - - - - - -

Zephon, who had been buried up to his shoulders, struggled free and stared. The throneat the base of the Balance pillar was gone. As was Kain. The pillar itself remained, but had a sense of thinness, of unreality that had not been there before. The Sluagh strode forward, halting in front of the pillar, and began summoning another projectile. It never finished.

- - - - - - - - -

The Death pillar suddenly wrapped around the Sluagh like a snake, souls exploding from everywhere it touched. The Sluagh struggled violently, almost tearing the pillar free of its base, but the pillar did not subside, souls leaving the Sluagh by the thousand. One such soul belonged to a certain Janos Audron, who began winging his way to the pillars as fast as he possibly could as soon as his body reformed. Slowly at first, then with increasing rapidity, the Sluagh began shrinking, until it became too small for the pillars to encase. Whereupon Dumah and Melchiah fell upon it, until what remained was one small, terrified Sluagh. Its eyes darted towards every possible escape route as the eight Guardians advanced on it.

A silver projectile flew over their heads and obliterated the Sluagh. Startled, the Guardians turned towards the source. It was Kain.

- - - - - - - -

_Just out of curiosity, does anyone see where this is going? This is the most bizarre plot twist I've ever written. Please review._


	23. Truth

**Truth**

Like Raziel before him, Kain at first thought the voices to be echoes of his own tortured mind, and only gradually realized them to be something more. But when he first realized this, he assumed they were some ploy of the Wheel OF Fate to lure him away from his tortured vessel. He ignored them for some time, until he finally penetrated the barriers sealing re-entry to his vessel. When he did, he had no time to react to the onrushing silver projectile. Knowing that if it struck him he was lost, he sent out a plea for aid to the voices. Then there was darkness.

Darkness, but not emptiness. Kain's mind remained as strong as ever, although his sense of 'self ' was flagging He could feel Nosgoth. He was Nosgoth. For the first time in his long, long existence he truly understood the depth of corruption that had been dealt the land. There was pain, slow suffocating agony- and short sharp jolts both. The latter were concentrated in one place. The pillars. Kain and the voices screamed in unison as pieces of themselves were removed from existence.

Then the voices- no the voice, there was only one, but spoken as by many- spoke to him.

**Watch...Listen...Understand...**

**In the beginning, It was. As the many planes of existence came into being, Nosgoth among them, It sent Its offspring to act as guardians and rulers to each. However, when it came to the land of Nosgoth, It erred. To two of its offspring did it bequeath the land of Nosgoth, and long did they strive for dominion, until at last both were weary, for neither could claim victory.**

**Thus did the Entity which came to be known as the Wheel of Fate slyly suggest that they should cease the meaningless conflict, and divide Nosgoth among both. To the Wheel of Fate was bestowed the creatures of Nosgoth, and to the other Whose Name is Lost was bestowed the land of Nosgoth. However, the Wheel of Fate then did force two of his peoples to war, culminating in the Ancients creation of the pillars, which ever siphoned strength from the land. And the Other Whose Name is Lost was wroth, for it now found it had been tricked. The Land of Nosgoth rose in plagues and fire, and many peoples died, but always some survived, and the Land was ever weakening. Fearing for His existence, the Other Whose Name is Lost, struck at the pillars. The Wheel of Fate greeted this action with delight, for it had long foreseen it, and no sooner did his sibling strike the pillars than It was sealed within them, and the Wheel of Fate gained dominion. But the pillars could no longer be destroyed, and with the essence of the Other Whose Name is Lost within them, they continued to siphon energy from Nosgoth, destroying what they could not rule. And the Wheel of Fate created a saviour then, the entity known as Kain, from whom sprung the entity known as Raziel. But they vanquished the Wheel, purging Nosgoth of one evil. Yet another remains. The Other Whose Name is Lost still exists within the pillars, ever siphoning Nosgoth's life force. Soon, it will have absorbed enough to exist independently of Nosgoth, which then shall cease to exist. Yet both siblings remained ignorant that Nosgoth itself was sentient, and had no wish to be governed. And Nosgoth was patient. But now, it is time. Thus Nosgoth implores. Kain, Scion of Balance, Go. Restore Balance to the Land.**

Kain had played the pawn before. It never benefited him. But Nosgoth had assimilated him wholly, and it could not lie to him. For the first time in his existence, he was not being manipulated. Nosgoth could not hide the cost. Kain would die, and Nosgoth's sentience with him, for it had assimilated him more wholly than it had intended. But Kain would die before being manipulated again, and he well knew brethren shared traits. The One inside the pillars would not be benevolent, even if it could escape without destroying the land. So, to be asked openly to die, or to refuse and die nevertheless? A fine edge to his coin. Nosgoth's sentience would die with him, but the land itself would remain, and prosper for his sons. Disgusted, Kain would have laughed bitterly if he had a body. Parental instinct could emerge at the most inconvenient of times.

"Very well."

And then he was in the pillars chamber. The eight guardians were staring at a small sluagh in the centre of the room. Using some of the knowledge bestowed to him by Nosgoth, Kain obliterated it. The Eight Guardians whirled.

"You...you're alive!" they all said in perfect unison, faces identical pictures of shock.

"Leave here. Now."

"What?" Marath was confused.

"Leave!" The brethren habitually obeyed, but Marath and Moebius stayed, questioning. Kain knocked them out and teleported them to safety, something he would never have been able to do before Nosgoth assimilated with him. Floating up to above the sanctuary building, he magically magnified his voice.

"Leave this place!"

Nobody hesitated, fleeing instantly, clawing past anyone who blocked their way. He gave them thirty seconds, before returning to the ground floor ansd advancing on the balance pillar.

"Vae Victus!"

_- - - - -_

_Hate to leave you hanging like this, but... _


	24. The Fall of The Pillars

**The Fall of the Pillars.**

Ah, Vae Victus. Your infamous warcry. Suffering to the Conquered. Has it ever struck you that it fails to specify exactly who 'the Conquered' are? You cannot destroy me, Kain. Your soul remains bound to me, and if I should fall, so do you. The Balance pillar had a voice like grating stone.

"I am aware of that. But bonds, no matter how powerful, can be broken. And I may survive just long enough to destroy all of you."

Altruism does not become you, Kain. Do not demean us all.

"There are worse Fates than Death. As you undoubtedly are all too aware."

You know nothing of Fate.

"And you know nothing of Death. I shall enjoy instructing you."

When the Balance pillar spoke next, it was joined by the other eight voices. They were as amused as stone could sound, which was little.

And the Fate worse than Death you speak of is of being manipulated yet again, is it not? Has it not occurred to you that you may be manipulated now?

"If that proves true I shall find the entity responsible and punish it as due."

And the Entity that manipulated that one? And the Entity that manipulated that one? And on with the vicious cycle until you eventually destroy all existence? Definitely amused now.

Ah, little soul, it gladdens us to put an end to your suffering. 

Kain habitually fell into his usual ground eating but unhurried stride. It had been the only thing he'd been able to learn as a human that he kept in practice today. After he'd announced his intention to travel in Coorhagen, the swordmaster had spent several months attempting to teach him to fight, after which the only thing he'd been able to learn had been the walking stance. Finally, the swordmaster gave up and said famously "Kain, the first time a hungry bandit calls you bluff you'll be spitted, but you'll look impressive up to that."

He got about three strides before agonizing pain set in. The pillar was using its bond to him to subject him to pain, driving him to his knees.

Fool. You have assimilated with A Nosgoth that we have drained of power. You are hardly more powerful now than you were beforehand. All powers you might have used, Mind, Dimension, Energy, and such are _embodied_ by us, and can do us no harm. You have been deceived.

A fresh wave of pain struck. Kain reached into Nosgoth and drew the one power he could use-Corruption. Weaving a net of Corruption as fast as he could, before the pillars realized what he was doing, he flung it around the balance pillar. As it closed, he contracted it, crushing the pillar and setting free the primal balance trapped within, even as he let the Corruption sear his own soul, severing his bond with the Balance pillar. The freed Balance seeped back into Nosgoth. All across the land, small effects went unnoticed by most. Here a few leaves clung more firmly to a knarled, blackened tree. Here a gate was infused with just a little more strength. Here a bridge clinging precariously to a cliff held just a bit longer than it ordinarily would have. Balance flowed around Kain, returning to Nosgoth. He bathed in it, glorying in the sensation of pure, unadulterated Balance. When the last of it had vanished, there was a small circular hole where the pillar had been, with what looked like dust held in a fine black net, invisible to all but Kain. He destroyed it with a silver projectile. Using those projectiles while Balance remained in the pillar would have been disastrous, but he could now do it safely.

The destruction of the Balance pillar created a terrible imbalance among the others. They could not contain it, so the pillar of Energy sacrificed itself to save the others, exploded by the great imbalance. Whirling, Kain spun his net as fast as he could, managing to catch most of the Shards of the pillar, but some of it escaped. Unable to do anything about them for the present, he contracted his net about the rest of the pillar, destroying it when finished.

Of course, the other pillars were not going to stand idly by and watch him destroy them. Stone turned to lava beneath his feet, choking brambles surrounded him, Mind induced illusions robbed him all sense of direction, portals to other planes tried to draw him in. Time slowed, allowing the other hazards to move with terrible liquid speed. Unable to stand before such an onslaught, Kain pulled Nosgoth's sentience around him like a shroud, feeling it splinter with the strain. It cursed him and uttered a single tortured scream before disintegrating, but gained him enough time to weave himself a thick bubble of corruption around himself which immediately began to buckle inwards as the pillars resumed their attack. He attempted to encase Conflict in Corruption, but it shredded his net before it was halfway to completion. His bubble continued to buckle inward. He began to reinforce it, then stopped and wove three more bubbles around the room, teleporting to each of them in quick succession as his first bubble burst. The pillars could detect the afterglow of teleportation magic, but without the Balance pillar's bond, could not tell where he was and split their attacks three ways. The illusion were weaker in his new bubble, and he was able to select his target-the Mind pillar- and encase and destroy it without much trouble. As they now knew where he was, he performed the teleportation trick again as the dimension pillar began sucking Corruption from the edge of his old bubble into other planes. As he selected his target, it dawned on him that he had not seen an assault from the Conflict or Death pillars yet. In his long experience in fighting Nosgoth's finest, he recognized this for what it was-bad news. Either they were waiting for him to tire or they were gathering energy for some powerful counterattack. He strengthened his bubbles.

While he was still halfway to completing his net for the Dimension pillar, the bubble to his left apparently shredded itself. Losing concentration, the strands of his net whiplashed back into him, leaving long bands of rotting flesh where they stuck. He barely managed to keep his own bubble intact, and the other collapsed. He barely managed to strengthen his own before nothing visible began eating at his bubble at an alarming rate. Then the other pillars attacks arrived and came close to shredding his bubble. Abandoning it for lost, he wove three more and did his teleportation trick again. Choosing a weaker target, he destroyed Nature and States. Eventually, losing energy all the time and now occasionally taking direct hits upon his actual body before he could summon another bubble, he destroyed Dimension after a grueling battle.

That left Conflict, Death, and Time. He began to spin his net-

"Kain! What are you doing?" Janos Audron landed in front of him. He was so astonished his bubbles collapsed, but the pillars failed to capitalize.

"I thought you were burned by the Hylden."

Janos grimaced. "I was. But you...You severed my soul from the Wheel and thrust it back into my vessel, which was forced back together from bloody rags by the will of the pillars. They preserved your existence for so long, Kain! How could you try to destroy them!?"

"The Hylden/Vampire war was nothing but a Diversionary tactic by _your Wheel of Fate, _to gain vengeance on a rival, Janos. The pillars were merely a means to that. How could I let them stand?" Half truths were more likely to be believed, Kain judged

"Heretic! You lie!"

"Why should I lie, Janos? In my present state, I could destroy you easily, with none the wiser. If you continue to protect the pillars, I shall. Stand aside or die."

"I am sorry, Kain. I cannot let you do this."

"Foolish. But, since you insist..."

Tentacles of corruption shot towards Janos, who dodged them easily, and to Kain's surprise, answered in kind. He was drawing through the Conflict pillar, because Corruption was ever in conflict with all forms of pure health. Kain could barely summon his bubble in time to meet the assault. Janos summoned a bubble of his own, and the battle was truly joined.

Some time later, Kain realized he was losing. They had used so much corruption between them that the room was almost solid with it, enough that if either of them let their shields collapse they would wither instantly. Janos had fought with unexpected guile, drawing much more than he needed in order to force Kain to reach further afield. But being a conduit for that much corruption had its price, and Janos feathers and skin were now a glistening black. A spike of corruption from Janos almost punctured his bubble. Kain's skin was beginning to rot too. Neither of them would last much longer. Realizing he could not prevail if he continued like this, Kain teleported. Not to flee. He re-appeared _inside_ Janos' bubble of corruption. Janos turned, and in his shock, his bubble collapsed inward. Kain teleported back to his bubble before Janos had drawn breath to scream. And scream he did. Before his slowly putrefying flesh robbed him of the ability.

Turning back to the pillars, Kain realized the real aim of the Conflict pillar's ploy. With both Janos and Kain drawing deeply, there was no longer enough corruption for Kain to weave his nets. Indeed, he would hardly be able to maintain his bubble before long. And drawing on corruption had its price. Even as he thought it, his left eyebrow ridge cracked and broke off. He'd have to create more corruption to win, and how did one do that? It was sickening, to come so close and yet fail. But then the knowledge stolen from Nosgoth gave him his answer. He drew his sword.

There were certain fundamental rules. One was that you could not teleport to where something already existed. There were wards to prevent this, created by a planet in self defense. While these wards were powerful, they were not impassible. Kain pushed at them now. And, painfully slowly, the wards succumbed.

Most of his swords had been smashed since he'd stolen them from that nameless blacksmith, millennia ago. He had just the one remaining and this he now teleported. It formed in the centre of Janos' chest, simultaneously ending his suffering and violating one of the most fundamental rules in existence. A side effect of this was something known to people in another plane of existence, far, far away, as a nuclear fusion explosion.

"Nosgoth, forgive me!"

The wave of fresh corruption almost swept him away, but his bubble lasted just long enough for him to weave a fresh one from this new energy. He had an abundance of it now, and the Conflict pillar did not have a chance.

The Time pillar fought gamely, always parting the crucial thread just before the net was about to close, forcing Kain to re-weave it five times. This was fine by Kain, who wanted to use up as much of the corruption as possible. He was about to close it the sixth time when-

-he writhed on the end of Raziel's blade in his stronghold-

-he realized utter futility as he fought Raziel atop the Silenced Cathedral-

-Snarling, Raziel nailed him to William the Just's tomb and he experienced the odd but agonizing sensation of having the soul sliced in half and devoured-

-He fell into the abyss by the not Raziel's hand-

All the could haves, the might-have-beens, where he could have died agonizingly, he experienced now. The time pillar had not been guarded by some of the most intelligent men in Nosgoth (you had to be intelligent just to understand the time-stream, never mind do anything about it) without learning a trick or three. But it did not avail it in the end, as Kain's net clicked closed and contracted. Yet there was art even in its defeat, as 50,000 years of primal Time hammered into Kain, robbing him of all mobility.

That left Death. It drew its power through Conflict and Time, and now was weak, which was exactly the reason he had left it until last. But weak did not mean harmless, and the Deathwind picked him up and flung him against the wall of the room. His bubble burst, and he was flooded with...coldness. He withered like a flower in the frost as the Deathwind made another pass.

His net clicked closed and-

-a fleeting thought flashed through his mind-

-I salute you. We were wrong to mock.-

-A square inch of primal Death hit him in the forehead and-

-His silver projectile struck the drained pillar as the last of the Primal Death left it and

-Darkness.

_The world shifted..._

Kain looked around with interest. So...this was what the spectral realm looked like. How odd.

Hello, Kain.

Ragl grinned at him.

Surprised?"

There was the sound of a soul being devoured.

Ragl grinned. Kain was powerful...indeed. The evil grin faded to horror. He spasmed, writhing all across the room...

Kain stood up. Now, all he had to do was find a conduit...

- - - - - - - -

_I know, I know, nuclear explosions in Nosgoth... Bear in mind I'm not a neuclear scientist, okay? I've no idea whether what happened is plausible or not. Just the Epilogue left._


	25. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_1000 years later..._

Nine six inch tall pillars grew around the room, born of the shards of the Energy pillar Kain had not fully destroyed. The corruption was still thick here, so much so that only a few powerful creatures could gain entry.

"Would you do the honors, Dumah?"

"Of course."

A heavy sledge hammer shattered all nine pillars. Kain wove traces of corruption around them, squeezing out the small piece of Nosgoth they had leached, before destroying the remainder of the pillars.

"So...It's finished."

"It seems so...Perhaps they managed to save some shard of themselves-We'll have to return."

Ignoring the other former Guardians, Kain wandered over to a corner as something caught his eye. It was a gold coin, an ancient Coorhagen gold mark. Actually, it was amazingly familiar...

Kain had done some reading over the last thousand years. The Balance guardian tended to introduce Balance in some curious way, to the land around him/her. Therefore it was perfectly logical that the coin he'd dropped before Nosgoth assimilated him had rolled away into a corner...on its edge.

_

* * *

_

_That's all, folks. Thanks for reading. I think I've used the coin metaphor a little too much, but I can't think of another way to end it._

_Acknowledgements: The second chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Wheel of time series, and all the other books I've plagiarized from over the course of this fic, my reviewers, and of course legacy of Kain._


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